YALE, Okla. (KFOR) – A woman shot and killed her ex-boyfriend, then called 911 on herself Wednesday morning, according to Payne County deputies.
It happened at a former bar in Yale, a few miles east of Stillwater. Ragina Armstrong called 911 at 8:21 a.m. Payne County Sheriff Kevin Woodward said she told dispatchers she shot her ex-boyfriend in the head. They have not yet released the 911 call.
When authorities arrived, Woodward said she surrendered to deputies. Inside the building, they found the body of 44-year-old John Atkinson.
Woodward said Armstrong told them she shot him in self-defense, however until that is proven, investigators will treat this as a homicide.
KFOR reached Armstrong’s son, David Armstrong, on the phone Wednesday. He said he has no doubt his mother was acting in self-defense.
“My mom is a nurse and would never hurt anybody,” Armstrong said. “She has no record, nothing.”
He told KFOR she and Atkinson had been having problems, and that she was getting ready to file a protective order against him. Armstrong said his mom called and asked him if she could stay at the building in Yale for safety while Atkinson picked up some things from the porch of her Cushing home. He said he doesn’t know exactly what transpired at the building Wednesday morning.
“[Atkinsons] had been disappearing for several days at a time, and I mean, we’re pretty sure he had a drug problem,” Armstrong said. “I had tried to tell her to leave him, and she finally did, and this happened. I never thought that anything would come to this, though.”
There is no surveillance video available of the inside of the building, and there were no other witnesses.
“I really hope that they’ll find the truth and find that this was self defense, [and] let her go,” Armstrong said. “But we’ll see.”
