Domestic dispute ends in deadly shooting
Published 5:02 pm Tuesday, June 11, 2013
A 62-year-old man has been charged with murder in a deadly shooting on Sunday in the Lily Hill community.
Lum Abner Gill, of Lily Hill, faces a murder charge in the first degree and a domestic violence charge in the first degree in the death of Calvin Ann Cooper Sartain, 52, of Clanton.
The shooting happened around 5 p.m. on Sunday at Gill’s residence in Lily Hill after two Chilton County Sheriff’s deputies had responded to a disturbance call Sunday afternoon.
Chilton County Sheriff Chief Deputy Shane Mayfield said Hill and Sartain were dating and got into a fight early Sunday morning at Sartain’s home on Westlyn Avenue in Clanton. The fight escalated at Gill’s home in the Lily Hill community in Verbena.
“Deputies responded to a call about a disturbance,” Mayfield said. “They went down to Gill’s home and found no physical injuries or no threats made.”
Mayfield said the deputies were on the scene serving as the “peacemakers” between the couple.
After working to calm both parties down, deputies allowed Sartain to go back inside the residence.
Mayfield said the deputies did not perceive the situation to be dangerous and when Gill asked to go inside to retrieve his cigarette lighter, no one thought it would be a problem.
Once inside, with one deputy standing in the exterior doorway of the home, Gill retrieved a shotgun from behind a door and shot and killed Sartain.
The second deputy was outside at the time of the shooting filling out the police report.
Mayfield said Gill was taken into custody at the scene and was charged on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there was no bond set for Gill.
Mayfield said authorities are still investigating the incident and interviewing family members who were present at the scene of the shooting on Sunday.