ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996                TAG: 9608190094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS
SOURCE: Associated Press 

WIFE ABUSE ENDS IN MURDER-SUICIDE DEPUTY HAD THREATENED TO BREAK HER NECK

A sheriff's deputy who killed his wife and himself, and wounded her brother-in-law, previously had threatened to break his wife's neck, according to divorce papers.

Linda and Gregory A. Lovell, both 26, had been separated four months.

Linda Lovell had filed for divorce on Aug. 8, accusing Lovell of intimidation and verbal abuse. He had not been served with the papers.

Lovell confronted his wife at her sister's home Wednesday night, and she fled next door, police said. He shot her four times while she was in the front yard, and shot her brother-in-law, James Ayers, when he tried to intervene.

Lovell, a Newport News deputy sheriff, then spent 30 minutes pacing up and down the block screaming ``Shoot me'' as police tried to calm him, witnesses said. Finally, he raised his gun and officers opened fire as he shot himself in the chest.

Autopsy results showed several police bullets grazed Lovell, but he died of his own gunshot wound.

Ayers, 47, was released from Riverside Hospital on Friday. A telephone call to his home went unanswered.

The Lovells were married June 3, 1989, and had lived with his parents.

Linda Lovell had sought a divorce on the grounds of desertion and cruelty. She asked for custody of their 4-year-old daughter, as well as child and spousal support.

She stated in her divorce petition that Lovell had destroyed and hidden her furniture and other personal belongings. She also said he cursed at her, intimidated her in front of relatives and locked her out of the house several times.

The court documents also state that on Jan. 11, 1995, Lovell had threatened to break his wife's neck and was arrested on assault and battery charges. It wasn't clear whether the case went to court.

Linda Lovell, an insurance clerk for a surgeon, was remembered by friends as a kind-hearted person who loved her daughter dearly.

``A lot of people have been impacted by this,'' said Denise Taylor, her supervisor. ``This kind of thing should not have happened.''

LENGTH: Short :   49 lines
KEYWORDS: FATALITY