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Oct 19, 2009 10:01 pm US/Central
Local Soldier Killed While On Leave From Iraq
By Melissa Newton
BLUM (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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Private Cody Patterson
KTVT / KTXA
A small Hill County town is rattled after a soldier, home on leave from Iraq, is shot and killed. It happened early Saturday morning in the town of Blum, about 20 miles south of Cleburne.
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.
Now, 24-year-old April Danielle Thompson is charged with manslaughter.
According to the Hill County Sheriff's Department, Thompson says the shooting was an accident. She told investigators that Patterson handed her the gun and told her it wasn't loaded. The young woman allegedly said she and Patterson were just playing when she pointed the gun at his chest and pulled the trigger.
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."
Thompson remains in the Hill County Jail on a $120,000 bond.
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