Miss. woman shooting at a pit bull fatally shot her husband instead, say police

(CBS/AP) JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi police say a woman accidentally shot and killed her husband while aiming at a pit bull puppy that had threatened her grandchildren.

Betty and Robert Walker of Houston were in Jackson, Miss. visiting their children and grandchildren, according to the Clarion Ledger.

According to witnesses, the dog named "Cocaine" lunged at and tried to attack the children, who were taken inside. The dead man's son says his father then picked the dog up.

Betty Walker fired twice at the dog, hitting her husband in the chest and the dog in the paw.

"I had gone upstairs to lay down, and I just heard two shots. I jumped out of bed and I heard my momma scream," Robert Walker Jr. said, according to the newspaper. "She was screaming, 'Your daddy's been shot! Your daddy's been shot!'"

Jackson police spokeswoman Colendula Green says the death of 53-year-old Robert Walker appears to have been accidental, and that a grand jury will decide whether to charge Betty Walker.

Animal control officers have taken the dog, and its owner could face charges.