AUSTIN — The Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting death of a cousin of Gov. Rick Perry in a mysterious exchange of gunfire with sheriff’s deputies.
An attorney for Larry Don Wheeler’s estate says the 74-year-old North Texas man was sitting on his backyard deck after dinner Saturday night at his home at a Montague County country club. David Gossom says that’s when sheriff’s deputies responded to a disturbance call.
Montague County District Attorney Jack McGaughey says Wheeler was holding a shotgun and an officer was shot in the hand. No other details have been released, and an autopsy is pending.
Perry’s office wouldn’t elaborate on his relationship with Wheeler, a retired social worker listed as a member of Perry’s 2006 re-election campaign steering committee.