Friday, April 30, 2004

Man who killed wife had been arrested for assault before By JOHN MUNFORD jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com The Tyrone man who shot and killed his estranged wife at a Fayetteville dentist’s office Tuesday afternoon was arrested by Tyrone police in February for an altercation that occurred between the couple. Sammy L. Tyson, 65, was arrested Feb. 10 for simple battery and interference with a 911 call after Tyrone police were summoned to the couple’s home at 255 Castlewood Rd., said police chief Johnny Hay. The next afternoon, Flossie Cooper Tyson, 54, a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, filed court papers seeking a family violence protective order that was ultimately granted by Fayette Magistrate James A. White. According to the order, Sammy Tyson was supposed to stay up to 200 yards away from his wife, move out of the couple’s home and refrain from threatening or harming her in any way. Police say Sammy Tyson violated that order Tuesday when he entered Family Dental Care at 270 Ga. Highway 314 north and shot Flossie Cooper Tyson several times. He then shot himself, according to police accounts, and both had died within two hours of the killing. On the petition for the family violence protective order, Flossie Cooper Tyson said she had become afraid of her husband. “He has an explosive personality and has, at times, grabbed my clothes and ripped them, hit me, (and) spit in my face,” Tyson said on the petition. As recently as April 7, there were indications that the couple had reached agreements on the temporary terms of their divorce after a mediation hearing, according to court papers. Mrs. Tyson filed the divorce suit in Fayette County Superior Court on grounds of the marriage being “irretrievably broken, adultery and cruel treatment.” Mr. Tyson originally filed a counterclaim to the petition for a temporary family violence protective order, alleging that his wife started the altercation Feb. 10 and that she struck him several times with the telephone. Mrs. Tyson said in court papers that argument began when he told her he “wasn’t going to file our taxes jointly.” “When I was looking at papers he went into a rage and slapped me,” Mrs. Tyson said in the petition. She also added, “This is the third time he has been arrested for hitting me and I am afraid of him when he goes into these explosive rages.” Mr. Tyson alleged in court filings that his wife has assaulted him several times, once shooting at him —Êthe bullet struck a wall instead — in 1991. The couple married in 1989 in Fayetteville but they had no children together. Mr. Tyson had been arrested in 1998 for kicking his wife in the stomach, she said in court papers. In his pleadings, he responded that he accepted court punishment for that incident and counseling so he could better understand how to deal with his wife. Several employees of the dental practice of John K. Kendrick and Jeffery A. Kendrick,Êlocated near Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, witnessed the shootings and were emotionally distraught afterward, police said.

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