6/15/2009
TIM UNRUH
CLAY CENTER — Family members said a stroke may have caused Ron Hughes to point a toy gun at officers early Sunday morning, prompting them to shoot and kill the 66-year-old man.
“We are in no way, shape or form, upset with the officers. They did what they had to do,” Ron Hughes’ son Ken said Monday afternoon. “We apologize, and feel bad for the officers in this tragedy.”
A retired Baptist minister, Ron Hughes was not a violent man, but he’d dealt with multiple strokes that affected the “cognitive side of his brain,” Ken said. “That cost him memory, and caused confusion.”
His mother, who was injured by Ron Hughes, was released Monday afternoon from Clay County Medical Center, where she was taken with cuts on her head. Ron Hughes and his wife were married 45 years, Ken said.
For more on the shooting in Clay Center, read reporter Tim Unruh's story in Tuesday's Salina Journal.