Sean C. Morgan
Police arrested a Sweet Home man after he allegedly shot a woman in the head Thursday afternoon.
The victim, Hollie Lavern Gregory, 48, survived the shooting and was released from the hospital soon after Sweet Home paramedics transported her to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital.
Police arrested Linn Phillip Davenport, 42, on an unrelated Linn County warrant for failure to appear on a charge of possession of a controlled substance. Police had not charged Davenport at the time of the arrest but anticipated multiple charges in connection with the shooting.
At approximately 12:10 p.m. on Thursday, Sweet Home police officers responded to a reported disturbance involving shots fired at 2018 18th Ave., the corner of 18th and Willow streets.
Upon arrival, police found Gregory on the ground outside the house. She was suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. The bullet apparently glanced off her skull at an angle, tearing her skin.
Police officers established a perimeter around the neighborhood and began searching for Davenport who reported ran from the scene as police were responding.
The U.S. Forest Service provided a law enforcement officer and tracking dog. Police tracked Davenport to 1803 River St. where he was hiding in a bedroom. Police took Davenport into custody without incident.
The owner of the house, Matthew Dreyer, was not home
Preliminary reports to police indicate a disturbance took place between Davenport and Gregory, Police Chief Bob Burford said. “Gregory ran outside the house with Davenport, armed with a handgun, chasing her.”
Two acquaintances, Stanley Tenbusch and David Anthony Phillips, were near the scene and attempted to intervene, Chief Burford said. “Apparently, he (Davenport) fired a shot, striking her in the head. She was able to keep running, but she was having difficulty because the blood was running into her eyes. At some point, she fell down. He grabbed onto her, and that’s when Phillips and Tenbusch started striking him (Davenport), trying to get the gun.”
Phillips and Tenbusch, armed with a bat and a rake, hit Davenport multiple times. Davenport fired several more rounds before expending all of the ammunition in the .38-caliber revolver.
Davenport dropped the weapon and fled on foot.
Neighbor Wayne Reynolds was among several persons who called police. Tenbusch had been walking west on Willow Street toward 18th and shouted at Reynolds to call police. Tenbusch then apparently went to the scene.
“I was trying to get our dogs rounded up,” Reynolds son, Jodi, said.
Davenport fled north across Willow Street where he attempted to climb a fence, Jodi said. The resident of that home told him to get away or he would let the dog loose on him. Davenport fled next door to cut across to River Street.
“He didn’t have a shirt on,” Jodi said. “He was bloody, his arm, his head.”
“When all the commotion started, it just literally flared up,” Wayne said. “He (Tenbusch) was standing on the road. I’m standing on my porch. I went in to call the police.”
Wayne said he hear several shots, then Davenport yelling “no, no, no, no more.”
“Police later learned that the gun was reported stolen out of a burglary that occurred in early August at 1337 Hawthorne St.,” Chief Burford said. An arrest was made on that burglary, but the gun was not found. It had been traded for methamphetamines.
Davenport’s address is 1334 Tamarack St., where police, in September, seized a boxed methamphetamine lab from the back yard. They seized the lab but made no arrests in connection with it.
Marc Holcomb had been at Gregory’s home in 1999 before he went down Willow Street to another home and shot and killed Dean Pruitt and wounded John Pruitt.
Phillips was at the Pruitt home and among those who Holcomb shot at, Chief Burford said. Tenbusch was also contacted during the investigation of that murder.
Davenport has a long history of contact with Sweet Home police, beginning in 1978, when he was arrested for second-degree criminal mischief. He has been arrested or suspected in numerous cases, including theft, drug offenses, assaulting a police officer, escape and resisting arrest. He also has been mentioned or contacted for information in many cases. The majority of police contact with Davenport was between 1987 and 1993 and since 1998.