Shelly Teffeteller was watching Sunday when her husband, Rodney, walked next door to try to settle an argument with a neighbor in Ten Mile, Tenn.
When Mr. Teffeteller walked up to Donald Hunter’s house, Mr. Hunter opened the front door and shot him, she said.
“He just put the gun in his face and shot him,” she said.
Mr. Teffeteller was killed, and authorities said Mr. Hunter has confessed to the shooting. He is charged with second-degree murder and is being held in Meigs County jail on a $100,000 bond.
The shooting happened about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The argument had brought Meigs County deputies to the home about 4 p.m., but they had left.
On Thursday, Mrs. Teffeteller said she wants to know why deputies did not realize while they were there how upset Mr. Hunter was.
“Why the police didn’t take him, I don’t know, because he could barely walk,” Mrs. Teffeteller said, explaining Mr. Hunter was drunk when officers arrived.
The argument was between Mr. Hunter and the Teffetellers’ 17-year-old daughter, Mrs. Teffeteller said. Mr. Hunter was angry, she said, because her daughter had gone over to his house and driven off in a vehicle that the Teffetellers’ had purchased from a friend of his, but the car was not yet registered.
On Tuesday, Detective Scotty Wiggins confirmed that deputies responded to Mr. Hunter’s complaint but left shortly after.
“Officers talked to both Hunter and the other party and decided the matter was a civil matter,” Detective Wiggins said Tuesday.
Detective Wiggins was off duty Thursday, according to the sheriff’s department, and could not be reached for comment.
But Detective Keith Kile said investigators still are looking into what led to the incident, he said.
“We’re just trying to understand what the motive was,” he said.