Deputy arrested in fatal shooting of wife

**Willowdared** · 12-15-06, 12:04 PM

Today will not be a very good day

By Angelica Martinez
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM
8:40 a.m. December 15, 2006

ALPINE – A sheriff's deputy was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting his wife during an argument late Thursday night in their home.

Lowell Bruce, 40, a deputy assigned to the department's detentions unit, was taken into custody after his mother-in-law called 911 to report that her daughter had been shot at 10:50 p.m. in the family's home on Camino Scarpitta, said sheriff's Lt. Dennis Brugos.

Brugos said Bruce called the Sheriff's Department a few minutes later, and was on the phone with officials at its Communications Center when other deputies arrived at 10:56 p.m.

The victim was identified by the Medical Examiner's Office as 38-year-old Kristen Marie Maxwell-Bruce.

Brugos said that Bruce told sheriff's officials he had shot his wife by accident.

But, Brugos said, “The evidence so far does not support this being an accident.”

Paramedics took Maxwell-Bruce to a nearby spot where a helicopter ambulance crew could land to fly her to a hospital, but she died at 11:48 p.m., before the helicopter could get there.

Brugos said Bruce, a deputy with the department for eight or nine years, was assigned to the Las Colinas Detention Facility. He was taken to the Alpine Sheriff's station and then booked into jail on a charge or murder, Brugos said.

Authorities said the couple's two children, a boy and a girl both under 10 years old, were home with the victim's mother and father and an older relative, who also live in the house, when the couple argued.

Brugos said investigators don't know what the couple was arguing about. he said there's no record of domestic violence or history of calls made to authorities from the home.

He said authorities don't plan to remove the children from the home.

Investigators said the weapon used was a pistol, but have not determined whether it was the gun issued by the department.

The house is a hilly neighborhood south of South Grade Road.

Investigators remained at the home Friday morning and planned to obtain a search warrant before they go through the home to gather evidence.