THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996             TAG: 9608170277
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                      LENGTH:   46 lines

DEPUTY HAD THREATENED HIS WIFE, SHE CLAIMED HE KILLED HER AND THEN COMMITTED SUICIDE ON WEDNESDAY IN NEWPORT NEWS.

A sheriff's deputy who killed his wife and himself, and also 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 Regional Medical Center 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 cruelty. She asked for custody of their 4-year-old daughter, as well as child and spousal support.

Lovell stated in her divorce petition that Gregory 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, Lovell's supervisor. ``This kind of thing should not have happened.''

KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING SUICIDE DOMESTIC DISPUTE by CNB