Thursday, April 9, 1998 | 12:46 p.m.
Terry White, 33, died from two gunshot wounds to the body as he was beating Tracy Templeton in her home Tuesday morning. White was pronounced dead at the scene.
Harris said the teen at first tried to pull White off his mother, then ran into his mother's bedroom, grabbed a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun and fired three shots, hitting White twice.
"It appears to me the kid was only acting to protect his mother and the 3-year-old child," Harris told the Elko Daily Free Press. "He may have saved all their lives."
Harris said his office likely will recommend to District Attorney Gary Woodbury that a coroner's inquest be held into the shooting.
Woodbury said Wednesday preliminary reports from detectives indicate an inquest would not be necessary.
"It seems to me to be a fairly clear-cut case of self-defense," Woodbury said.
The teen lives with his father in Montana and was in Spring Creek visiting his mother. The mother and the boy both were questioned by detectives Tuesday and Wednesday.
"We don't think he (White) knew the teen-age boy was in the home," Harris said. "He knew her husband was gone and she was probably home alone with her young child."
Harris said Ms. Templeton told detectives White was yelling he was going to kill her as he hit her with blow after blow.
She received a broken cheekbone, a broken nose, several bruises on her body and a cut to her forehead from the attack.
White was released from Elko County Jail the night before the attack after completing a 25-day contempt of court sentence for failing to pay fines from a stalking charge brought by Ms. Templeton.
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