Coroner: Woman with laser target gun killed by officers

BLACKSBURG, S.C. – A coroner says police officers fatally shot a South Carolina woman after she pointed a gun with a laser targeting system at one of the officers.

Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler says 41-year-old Stephanie Owens called 911 from her Blacksburg home early Sunday morning asking for help.

Fowler says that when Cherokee County sheriff’s deputies arrived, Owens had a gun and threatened to shoot them.

The coroner said in a statement that deputies tried several times to get Owens to drop the gun. But he says that about 55 minutes after she called 911, Owens pointed the laser target at a deputy, and four of the five officers at the scene fired on her.

Fowler says Owens died two hours later.

The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating.