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PORTLAND, Ore. (TCD) — A former professional wrestler is accused of shooting and killing his 85-year-old wife at their home last week.
According to the Portland Police Bureau, on Thursday, Feb. 8, just before 10 a.m., officers responded to the 6000 block of Southeast 100th Avenue in the city’s Lents neighborhood for a report of a shooting. Police made contact with a potential suspect inside the home, but he reportedly would not cooperate with officers. Portland Police called in the Special Emergency Reaction Team and Crisis Negotiation Team for assistance, and he later surrendered.
Officers went into the home and found Janette Becraft deceased.
On Saturday, Feb. 10, Portland Police identified the suspect as Becraft’s husband, William Albert Haynes Jr. Police said Haynes, 70, is in police custody at a hospital because he is receiving treatment for “a medical condition unrelated to the homicide or his contact with law enforcement.”
He will be booked into jail when is he released from the hospital, which “may be days from now.”
Thomas Matthieu, who lives with his daughter in a separate part of Haynes’ house, told The Oregonian/Oregon Live that Becraft and Haynes were “inseparable” and “adored each other.”
Becraft reportedly suffered from dementia, and Haynes had a bad fall one night before the shooting, according to The Oregonian/Oregon Live.
The suspect was more famously known as “Billy Jack” Haynes in the 1980s when he was a wrestler for the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He also participated in “WrestleMania III” in 1987. The Oregonian/Oregon Live reports Haynes filed a lawsuit against the WWE in 2014 for failing to protect athletes from head trauma. Haynes reportedly suffered at least 15 concussions during his tenure.
The class action complaint shared by the news source says, “Under the guise of providing ‘entertainment,’ WWE has, for decades, subjected its wrestlers to extreme physical brutality that it knew, or should have known, caused long-term irreversible bodily damage, including brain damage.”
The complaint says Haynes “suffers from depression and exhibits signs of dementia.”
One neighbor told The Oregonian/Oregon Live following the shooting, “Everybody in the neighborhood knew them. It’s just shocking.”
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