Rancher Becomes Hero By Killing Apparent Cattle Rustler

AFTON, Okla. - Doug Gibson counted on hard work and luck to bring him success as a cattle rancher.

Instead, Gibson said, this year ushered in a plague of cattle rustlers and no solution from an undermanned sheriff's department.

So he picked up a shotgun and took matters into his own hands.

Under a full moon at 11:30 p.m. March 30, Gibson killed one of two men walking across his pasture. The other man escaped unharmed and was charged with attempted cattle rustling. Gibson was charged with second-degree manslaughter.

Instantly, at age 32, Gibson became a reluctant hero, and his case spawned a new political movement to fight crime in rural areas.

"All during this thing, I never felt like a hero," said Gibson, who makes a living as a tree trimmer for a rural electric co-op and ranches on the side. "A lot of people rallied around me because, finally, the good guy got back."

Gibson's friends and neighbors formed the Doug Gibson Legal Assistance Fund. As donations poured in, Gibson had a decision to make: He could go to trial or accept a plea bargain.

On May 19, Gibson took the deal. He pleaded no contest to the manslaughter charge in return for an 18-month, unsupervised probation. If he doesn't get into trouble during that time, he will go back to court, and his record will be wiped clean.

An Oklahoma statute, commonly called the "make my day" law, says a resident can use deadly force to protect people in imminent bodily

danger. But the law says one cannot use deadly force to protect livestock or other property.

The leaders of the Doug Gibson Legal Assistance Fund say they want the Oklahoma statute to be amended to conform with Texas law, which allows residents to use deadly force to protect their property at night.

"Doug has been the rallying point," said Dr. Wiley Hough, a veterinarian in Miami, Okla.

Gibson lives with his family in a non-air-conditioned farmhouse just off Interstate 44.

Gibson arrived home at 5:30 p.m. from a 10-hour shift trimming trees. Before dinner, he drove off to do the chores that sustain his dreams of some day becoming a full-time cattle rancher.

On this day, he was preoccupied with a cow that gave birth to a dead calf the night before, the result of a breech birth. Antibiotics for the cow rested on the seat next to him.

As he pulled up to the pasture gate, Gibson was clearly shaken as he spotted the cow lying dead in a pen.

"I really liked that old cow," he said in a slow drawl.

After a moment, he added: "I made $80 at work today. That cow and calf were worth about $1,250. I guess it's just the business."

After two years of part-time ranching, Gibson has built his herd to 26 cows and 16 calves. During a two-week period in March, he said rustlers stole four calves. He had no insurance.

The sheriff's department, he said, would not investigate.

"They just told me to come into town and file a report," he said. "I was afraid I was gonna be out of business if it kept up."

Sheriff Jim Ed Walker, in response, said he has six deputies to patrol 640 square miles of Ottawa County. He acknowledged not having the manpower to investigate most nonviolent rural crimes.

So Gibson said he decided to sleep in the barn loft and catch the rustlers if they struck again.

On the fifth night of his stakeout, Gibson said he saw two men coming across the pasture. He said he yelled and fired three shots from his Remington 12-gauge shotgun.

Gibson said he climbed from the loft and ran the 60 yards to where Robbin Irwin, 42, lay wounded, but still conscious. One pellet had pierced his side. The second man, Daniel Wyrick, was hiding behind a haystack.

Gibson said he admonished the men to stay put. Then, he said, he ran 300 yards down the road to his house and called 911.

According to court records, Wyrick and Irwin, both of Joplin, Mo., told investigators their pickup had overheated and stalled on a road near the pasture. They said they were heading for a stock pond to get water for the radiator when Gibson fired.

"The problem was that they didn't have a bucket or anything to carry water," Walker said. "I also checked the engine, and it was OK. Nothing wrong with that truck."

Walker also reported investigators found five pieces of nylon rope at the scene and in the pickup. A piece of plywood covered the pickup's bed.

The next day Gibson learned Irwin had died after surgery in Joplin.

"It's hard for me to accept that someone actually died," Gibson said.

T. Logan Brown, an attorney who is defending Wyrick against the cattle-rustling charges, is one of the few people in Ottawa County who openly challenges what Gibson did that night.

"It was premeditated," Brown said. "He went and bought double-ought buckshot that could stop big game. He laid in wait in a second-story window, and he shot someone. It's taking the law into your own hands."

Wyrick is awaiting trial and could be sent to prison for five years if convicted.

Some members of the defense-fund organization, which is searching for a new name, want to use part of the money to hire private detectives to investigate high-profile rural crimes such as cattle rustling.

As the spotlight on his case dims and the organization takes up new causes, Gibson says he hopes his life will return to normal.

"I guess everyone has to know their limitations," he said, "and I'm not one to be in the public eye."