Three months ago, labor law attorney Claud “Tex” McIver shot his wife in back, killing her. No one disputes that. His lawyer says he did it. The question is, though: Should he go to prison?
The 74-year-old faces felony involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor reckless conduct. Charges were only filed recently months after wife Diane McIver died. Attorney Steven Maples says it was an accident.
The arrest warrants are “not totally tremendously at odds with what we’re saying was just simply a horrible accident,” he told WXIA in a Wednesday report. “And that’s what I think the facts will show in this case, is that it was simply a horrible accident.”
Back in September, family friend Bill Crane told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution that the couple had been riding in downtown Atlanta—him in the back seat, her in the passenger side seat—when several people approached them at an intersection shortly after a Black Lives Matter protest. The McIvers were afraid of getting carjacked, so Claud took out a handgun just in case. But the SUV hit a bump, and the gun accidentally fired, Crane said.
“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “They are two great professionals, philanthropists.”
At the time, investigators immediately signaled that this would take some time to figure out.
“This is one of those situations we’re working through very slowly,” police Sgt. Warren Pickard told the outlet. “We want to get it right.”
[Screengrab of McIver via WSB-TV]
