THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503180231
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
After shooting his estranged wife, a distraught Army veteran told his sister by phone early Friday he wanted to die in a confrontation with police.
He got what he wanted.
Jimmie B. Coward, 47, a former military police officer and Army SWAT member who did three tours in Vietnam, died when he confronted a police officer outside his home shortly after 1 a.m.
Police had surrounded Coward's house in the 200 block of Falcon Ave. after he sped from his estranged wife's duplex and returned home. Julie Coward, 40, was shot in the groin and is in fair condition at Virginia Beach General Hospital.
On Friday, those who knew Jimmie Coward gave different opinions of what triggered the violence.
Friends of Jimmie Coward said he was a man who dearly loved his wife, but was racked by drinking problems, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from his military service.
``The problem was alcohol,'' said Jimmie Coward's attorney, Claude Michael Scialdone. ``When he drank, he was not a gentleman. When he was depressed and he drank, he had problems controlling himself.''
Friends of Julie Coward said Jimmie Coward was a monster who frequently attacked his wife and scared his son.
``She moved into a battered-women's shelter to get away from him,'' said Catherine Roush, a neighbor who called 911. ``She was hiding from him because of all the domestic abuse. She was scared.''
She had good reason. Jimmie Coward was arrested twice last year - in May and December - for battering or threatening his wife, police records show.
He was convicted of assaulting her in December.
Also in December, Jimmie Coward tried to kill himself by swallowing 29 sleeping pills and washing them down with three glasses of whiskey, records show.
Jimmie Coward's attorney said the separation had been difficult for the military veteran, but it was amicable. Jimmie and Julie Coward had known each other 14 years, and had been married nine.
The attorney said that, recently, Jimmie believed he had his emotions under control.
``He told me recently he had finally resolved everything, and he was going to make it and be OK, even though he and his wife weren't going to be together,'' Scialdone said. ``I'm very sad for his wife and for his family. I wish we could have done more.''
Julie Coward lived in daily fear of her husband, neighbor Roush said. She tried to keep secret her move from the shelter to the Gunn Hall Drive duplex, Roush said, but her husband found her.
Julie was so scared that she and her neighbor worked out a signal, Roush said. Julie Coward was supposed to pound on the duplex wall if Jimmie returned, and Roush would dial 911.
About 9:45 p.m. Thursday, the alarm came. But the noise was Julie being thrown against the wall, said Roush, who called police.
Roush then knocked on her neighbor's window while Roush's husband banged on the front door. Inside, the commotion suddenly stopped, she said. Julie Coward's 8-year-old son answered the door.
``I got him to come outside, he was in tears,'' Roush said. ``I got him into my house and he told me his daddy had shot his mommy and he didn't want her to die.''
Roush called police again. While she was on the phone, Jimmie Coward left.
She went next door and turned on the kitchen light. Julie was on the floor.
Julie Coward said she had been shot once, and her husband fired again but his gun jammed. He then tried to strangle her. She went limp and feigned death, and he left.
Police arrived moments later.
Jimmie Coward drove home, police said. In a phone conversation with his sister, identified as Jean Fanney of Chesapeake, he said he wanted to provoke a gun battle with police and die. Meanwhile, a SWAT team was surrounding his house. Armed with a loaded .38-caliber revolver, he crept outside along a row of shrubbery and confronted a SWAT officer.
Coward ignored the officer's demand to drop the gun. Coward turned toward the officer and raised the revolver. The officer fired at least twice.
Jimmie Coward died during emergency surgery at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital at 3:27 a.m.
Police later found another loaded gun - a 9 mm handgun - in Jimmie Coward's back yard.
Police are withholding the name of the officer involved in the shooting. He has been placed on paid leave while the case is being investigated, as a matter of policy, police said. ILLUSTRATION: Jimmie B. Coward was a former military police officer and Army
SWAT member who did three tours in Vietnam.
KEYWORDS: SHOOTING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DOMESTIC ABUSE HOMICIDE
FATALTITY INJURY by CNB