Tuesday, June 9, 1998

Elderly man's fatal shooting raises doubts

Texas Rangers are still investigating the shooting death of 96-year-old William Euell Poynor of Gorman by Eastland County law enforcement personnel, and so final judgments are premature. But on the surface, at least, many aspects of the incident raise troubling questions.

An Eastland County sheriff's deputy responded to a 911 call made by Poynor's wife, Maxine, on the night of May 29, requested backup and was joined by two Gorman Police Department officers and an Eastland County constable. The substance of that 911 call is in some dispute. Law enforcement records show Maxine Poynor requested assistance because her husband had a gun and was threatening her. Relatives of the Poynors', however, claim she was just worried that her husband might hurt himself stumbling in the dark while trying to run off some cruising teen-agers who were using the Poynors' home as a place to turn around.

At any rate, the first thing law enforcement personnel did upon arriving was to take Mrs. Poynor, who came outside to meet officers on the porch, to safety across the road. If she had, indeed, been in danger from her husband, moving her out of harm's way removed that threat. And from this point, there was no reason to provoke a confrontation with an elderly man who was alone, armed only with a single-shot .410 shotgun, and not posing a danger to anyone else.

Situations in Abilene

In Abilene, two recent hostage-type situations with armed fugitives were ended without gunfire or violence because the responding officers exercised patience and didn't force the issue toward the boiling point. In both these incidents, Abilene police didn't even know the individuals involved. It seems reasonable that in the smaller town of Gorman, local police would know whose residence they were responding to and know the elderly Poynor was hard of hearing and probably had diminished vision in the dark. His coming outside holding his shotgun was not necessarily a challenge to law enforcement personnel, who apparently had surrounded his home in battle-like array.

Finally, there is the matter of how many shots were fired at Poynor, who seems not to have fired a shot himself. One report says some 12 rounds were let loose at the 96-year-old man, and observers of the scene say at least eight bullet holes are visible in the wall of the house and one in a window. Back windshields were shattered in two cars parked in the Poynor carport. It resembles the way lawmen of an earlier era went after Bonnie and Clyde.

Perhaps the official report, whenever it comes, will give us new facts to see Poynor's death in a different light. But for now, it is easy to understand why Poynor's family and the people of Gorman don't feel an old man's death in a hail of gunfire can simply be explained away.