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Police: Woman Shoots Stalker To Death After Break-In
Woman Endured Many Incidents With Stalker, Police Said

POSTED: 1:23 pm CST November 14, 2007
UPDATED: 2:15 pm CST November 14, 2007


An accused stalker was shot to death Monday night by the object of his obsession after he broke into her Hessville home, police told the Northwest Indiana Times.

Hammond resident Ryan Lee Bergner, 41, was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds to his abdomen shortly after 10:30 p.m. at a local hospital.

According to the Times, Bergner went on a date with the 51-year-old woman last June, and his behavior became obsessive, offensive and violent.

On Monday night, the woman was watching television in her living room when she said she heard Bergner break a bathroom window near her back door and called 911.

A friend had given the woman a pistol for protection earlier in the day.

After the 911 operator told her to lock herself in her bedroom until police could come, she ran upstairs to do so and retrieved the gun.

This was the second time in recent days that Bergner broke into her home, breaking a back window, destroying a clock radio and stealing several of her undergarments over the weekend.

Police records show Bergner also allegedly had tried to kick in the woman's front door a week before that, and also allegedly accosted her at her job and being ejected from the business by her co-workers.

He also was suspected of slashing her Jeep's tires on at least two occasions, police records show.

"This isn't over yet," Bergner told the woman on Nov. 3, according to police reports.

Hiding in her closet on Monday night, the woman said she heard Bergner enter the bedroom, then watched as he opened the closet door.

She said she told him to stop, but he kept coming. She fired the gun three times.

She said he then proceeded to choke her violently before collapsing to the floor.

"I was shaking so bad, I didn't think I'd hit him," the woman recalled Tuesday afternoon. "He just kept coming… I didn't want it to end this way."

Bergner had not been charged in any of the half-dozen previous complaints made against him.

"We only went out on that one date," the woman told the Times on Tuesday. "I got a look at his temper, and realized I didn't want anything to do with him. But he wouldn't take no for an answer."
Copyright 2007 by NBC5.com. All rights reserved.