Armed man fatally shot by police

"When he opened the door, he thought it was one of the people over there he was arguing with," said neighbor Martin Casino, 28.

Casino said he heard Chuck Walters have a dispute with some other neighbors earlier in the day at the Sunrise Pointe Mobile Home Community, 4800 E. Cheyenne Ave. He said one of those neighbors had called the police.

Walters apparently wanted to use the handgun to scare the neighbor, he said.

Casino described Walters as a "nice guy" and said Saturday’s incident was the first time he had seen the man have problems with anyone.

Kevin Carney, Walters’ roommate and employee, said he knew his boss owned a .22-caliber gun, but he did not believe reports that Walters pointed it at two police officers who came to the residence.

"It used to be my gun," he said. "I sold it to him."

A police statement released Saturday evening by Deputy Chief John Sullivan said the officers came to the mobile home after a woman complained that a resident there had threatened her.

The statement said the officers knocked at the door several times.

"After a delay, the officers could hear someone running toward the door," the statement said. "The door was suddenly opened, and the occupant confronted the officers with a small-caliber, semiautomatic pistol in hands. The officers fired several shots, killing the suspect."

Carney, 33, who returned to the home at Space 277 Saturday after learning of the shooting, said he heard that Walters had threatened to report a female neighbor to the welfare department. That may have been the source of the earlier disagreement, he said.

Casino and his girlfriend, 25-year-old Rhonda Lynch, have lived across from Walters in Space 33 for nearly a year. They said their windows were open Saturday, but they never heard police say anything before the 1:15 p.m. shooting.

After hearing gunshots, Casino said he went outside and saw a police officer.

"The cop turned around and asked me to leave," he said.

Lynch said she heard Walters’ girlfriend yelling outside after she saw her slain boyfriend, the father of a 4-year-old boy.

"`I was just makin’ love to my man’ _ exact words," Lynch said.

Carney and Casino said the victim appeared to be only partially clothed at the time of the shooting.

Carney said Walters’ son, Chucky, was at a day care center Saturday afternoon. He said the boy, Walters’ child from a previous relationship, was spending six weeks with his father.

Walters and the boy’s mother had been fighting for permanent custody of the youngster, he said.

Carney said Walters owned Valley Plumbing and Rooter Service, for which Carney has worked intermittently as a plumber for the past four years. They had known each other 20 years, he said.

According to department policy, the names of the officers involved in the shooting will not be released for 48 hours. This was the sixth police-involved shooting death this year.

A coroner’s jury will determine whether the homicide was justifiable or criminally negligent. A date for the inquest has not been set.