A woman who repeatedly asked a judge to take her abusive ex-husband’s guns is dead after that same ex-husband fatally shot her — after her request for a protection order was denied.
DecaturDaily.com reports that Debra Ann Rivera was the victim of a triple murder-suicide that also killed her husband and a roommate. Sources from the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office told the news outlet that Rivera’s ex-husband shot the three victims multiple times before fatally shooting himself near his home in Madison County, Alabama.
In addition to Brazier’s ex-wife Debra, 41, her husband Radex Rivera, 41, and their roommate Timothy James Hayward-Boger, 59, were killed.
Before she and two others were shot dead in Alabama on Sunday, Debra Ann Rivera twice had asked a judge to order her ex-husband to surrender his guns because of alleged abuse.
The request was denied both times by the same judge. https://t.co/LkZVNNEv5w
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 3, 2018
Brazier is believed to have shot the victims at their home in Ardmore before fleeing the scene, with police quickly on his tail.
WHNT reports that a woman called police on Sunday afternoon to say she had received text messages from Brazier confessing to the triple murder and claiming he planned to kill himself. He then fled the scene.
Responding deputies found evidence that Brazier fired 30 rounds from an SKS rifle. Investigators quickly launched a manhunt, eventually locating Brazier’s vehicle not far from his home. A SWAT team arrived and set up a perimeter, according to the report.
Soon after, investigators heard the sound of gunshots and moved toward the sound, which led them to Brazier’s body in woods near his home. He had died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In March 2017, Rivera filed her first petition for an order of protection against the man who would murder her, additionally asking that Brazier be ordered to relinquish his firearms. A judge denied that request, and Rivera petitioned again for a protection-from-abuse order on March 1 of this year, according to documents obtained by DecaturDaily.com.
“He calls my husband threatening to hurt both of us,” Rivera reportedly wrote in the court filing. “(He) drives by my house all hours of day to check where I am. He is upset I am now married and don’t want to be with him. He has been physical in the past, pulled a gun on me. … I know he has anger toward me and in past has caused physical pain to me.”
In a court hearing on April 10, Wise terminated the temporary order and denied Rivera’s petition. Brazier had reportedly submitted a one-line denial of the allegations through his lawyer.
According to court records obtained by WAAY 31, Brazier was charged with harassment in 1994, but the charges were eventually dismissed.
This is Limestone County Circuit Judge Chad Wise. He denied a woman an order of protection even though her ex-husband repeatedly threatened to kill her!! SHAME!!! https://t.co/ez6cmslJG6 pic.twitter.com/gQDSn0PjPz
— lydia mannion-evanso (@lydiajme) July 3, 2018
Judge Wise did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DecaturDaily.com.