LOCAL

Woman shoots husband as he works on her car, police say

Mary Huber
mhuber@statesman.com

A woman was arrested Tuesday night in North Austin after police say she shot her husband, whom she is divorcing, as he was helping to fix her car.

Julie Ward, 50, has been booked into the Travis County Jail on a charge of aggravated assault against a family member, according to an arrest affidavit. She was being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, online jail records showed Saturday morning.

Police said they received a call around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday from a girl saying that her mom had shot her dad and was trying to shoot her. Officers responded to the 11700 block of Santa Cruz Drive, where they found a man whose right hand was dripping blood from a gunshot wound, the affidavit states. He was taken to a local hospital, where doctors put several stitches in his hand.

The man explained to police that his wife, whom he's in the process of divorcing, came to his house in Northwest Austin on that evening to check on their daughter, who was sick. He said he followed his wife into the bedroom where the girl was resting because he had concerns about her past behavior and drug addiction, the affidavit states.

The man said Ward was "behaving very strangely, scratching her head constantly and massaging their daughter to the point where their daughter told her to stop because the massage was 'weird and hurts,' " according to the document.

Ward said she would leave, but before walking out, asked her husband if he would come and look at her car because the coolant light was on, according to the affidavit. The man asked his daughter to come with him because Ward was acting "sketchy."

While the victim was pouring coolant into his wife's vehicle, he saw her pull a pistol from her bag, according to the affidavit. He ran toward the house and heard a loud gunshot, then realized his wife had shot him in the right hand, the document states.

The man and his daughter ran into the house and locked the doors, but Ward followed them, pointing the pistol toward the house. The girl called police, but when officers arrived, Ward had fled.

Police said her vehicle was later spotted in the Domain shopping center in North Austin, outside the Gloria's restaurant. Ward was taken into custody and then led police to where she had dropped the weapon used in the shooting, the affidavit states.