Guns don't kill people, newspapers kill people.

When will the madmen at the fancifully named Editor&Publisher admit they have been living a lie all these years and start covering a nonviolent business? Like meatpacking.

A resident of Hominy, Okla., walked into a local diner Tuesday afternoon and allegedly shot a pregnant waitress, 26-year-old Becky Clements, in the head, then shot her again in the stomach and chest. Sheriff Ty Koch said the motive is apparently a recent letter to the editor of the Hominy newspaper, the News Progress, written by the woman.

Osage County authorities say they'll ask for two first-degree murder charges against 63-year-old Roy Westbrook, who was recently honored by the newspaper as Hominy's 2004 Citizen of the year. The newspaper is a weekly with a circulation of about 1,500.

Clemens was 11 weeks pregnant.

The letter from the dead woman had said local vandalism is done by prominent citizens and referred to spray-painted graffiti on a rental home owned by Westbrook, although it did not name him. The letter did say the spray-painting was done by the owner.

Westbrook was trying to evict the victim's sister from the building.

When the shooting occurred, there were about 50 people inside the diner. Owner Chad Filali said, in a local TV report, "I heard pops. I didn't know if they were guns or not to tell you the truth until people came out and said 'there's a shooting inside, there's a shooting inside.'"

Just this past January, the Hominy News Progress gave Westbrook an award for his generosity to the community.
(Thanks to Drudge for the heads up.)