Police Charge 65-Year-Old Man With Killing Roommate

Shooting Took Place Sunday Night In 100 Block Of Whittier Lane

POSTED: 2:17 pm EDT June 21, 2010
UPDATED: 2:48 pm EDT June 21, 2010

LANCASTER, Pa. -- A Lancaster city man called 911 just before 2 a.m. Sunday and told the dispatcher he had "shot his friend" and that "I think he's dead," police said Monday in a news release.

That led investigators to charge 65-year-old Luther E. Benner of 139 Whittier Lane with shooting to death his roommate early Sunday.

The victim was 46-year-old Robert C. Zwally, 46, who lived with Benner at the home.

Police in the news release detailed a grisly scene at the home when investigators arrived after the 911 call. They found Zwally with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest lying in a half bathroom, and they arrested Benner, who had "what appeared to be blood stains on Benner's body" and face.

When an officer asked Benner for identification, Benner said he had ID and that "I shot him," according to the news release. Benner repeated that statement multiple times and said that Zwally had come at him with a gun and "shot at me first, so I shot him," police reported.

Officers said Benner was intoxicated when they arrested him.

According to police, investigators found a semiautomatic handgun lying on a chair with the hammer cocked in a firing position and a round in the chamber.

Officers said they interviewed a woman identified only as Zwally's girlfriend, who told investigators that she was in the home and overheard the two men arguing followed by a gunshot.

During a search of the home, detectives found a bullet that was fired through the ceiling and that there were signs of a "struggle at the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor and investigators located fresh blood in that area," the news release said.

Benner was interviewed by detectives again and changed his story, police said.

Benner admitted that he not been truthful with police and said he "approached Zwally, who had been in the bathroom alone with the door closed" when they began fighting over the handgun, according to the news release. During the struggle, Zwally was shot, police said.

Benner said after shooting he fired a round into the ceiling and that Zwally never fired a shot, according to the police news release.

From: http://www.wgal.com/news/23978786/detail.html#