 CBS7 News -- HILLSBORO Investigators in Hill County are still trying to piece together the motives behind the fatal shooting of an Army soldier by an Odessa woman in what Hill County Sheriff Jeffrey Lyon called “a tragic accident.”
Lyon said 24-year-old April Danielle Thompson was charged with manslaughter after police accused her of firing a gun and fatally wounding 20-year-old Army Pvt. Cody Patterson early Saturday in his home in Blum, about 40 miles north of Waco. Lyon said investigators did not find any evidence to suggest the homicide was premeditated and deliberate, though they accused Thompson of running from Patterson’s home after the shooting and fleeing 30 miles away to Glen Rose.
She says he told her that the gun was real, but that it wasn't loaded.
Police say she cocked the trigger, placed the gun against his chest and fired.
It was supposed to be a joyful reunion, but that joy has now turned to grief as many in the small town are coping with the death of a young soldier.
Private Cody Patterson had just arrived back from Iraq last week. The plan was to spend the next two weeks visiting family in Blum. But early Saturday Patterson was shot and killed in the bedroom of his home.
Patterson's aunt, Joyce Williamson is still in disbelief. "It don't seem real… it just don't. He was just like one of my own. I watched him grow up to be a heck of a man," she said.
Lyon said that Thompson worked at The Healthy Heart Center in Odessa since moving here in 2008 but went to high school in Blum and had a child with her late boyfriend there. She was in town visiting her child as well as Patterson, who was her late boyfriend’s best friend.
Lyon said Thompson’s boyfriend was killed in a car crash two years ago while riding with Patterson.
Thompson was still in jail Tuesday being held on a $125,000 bond for the manslaughter charge.
Patterson's body has been sent to Dallas for an autopsy.
Police are still investigating the bond between Thompson and Patterson.
He was stationed at Fort Bliss.
Residents in the town of less than 400 people are stunned by the news. In fact, Tonie Johnson says Patterson and his best friend were at her restaurant just hours before his death. "You're just that close to somebody that day and then you won't see him again," she said. "Your heart goes right out to the family. Your heart just breaks for them. They're poor baby is gone." | 
