Shennel McCrimon McKendall's family says Chatham County Sheriff Richard Webster didn't work hard enough to confiscate a gun belonging to her estranged husband or to protect her - despite deputies' promises that they would do so.

On Nov. 29, 2004, Randy McKendall shot Shennel McKendall five times outside her office near UNC-Chapel Hill's Friday Center before putting the gun to his own head. Husband and wife both died.

In Chatham County Superior Court on Monday, Webster's attorney, Jim Secor, argued the wrongful death lawsuit filed by McKendall's family should be dismissed. Among other things, Secor said it was Randy McKendall's responsibility to turn over all weapons and ammunition after his wife secured a domestic violence protective order against him in November 2004.

Shennel McKendall had hoped the order would keep her safe. Instead, it began a 20-day downward spiral.

Randy McKendall was hospitalized after trying to commit suicide by overdosing on drugs, and jailed twice for violating the domestic protective order. He called his wife and threatened to commit suicide and is suspected of breaking into McKendall's home and shooting a television.

Still, Secor said Webster was acting within the law. He cited the domestic violence protective order statute that had been law for about a year when the shooting happened. It says: "The court shall order the defendant to surrender to the sheriff all firearms, machine guns, ammunition, permits to purchase firearms, and permits to carry concealed firearms that are in the care, custody, possession, ownership, or control of the defendant..."

"I don't read that as unbridled authority to go on a handgun search," Secor told the court.

But attorney Al McSurely, who represents Shennel McKendall's relatives, said the sheriff's internal guidelines can call for searches to find guns that are known about. In this case, McSurely said, the sheriff's office knew about the gun and had the ability to get it.

A sheriff's deputy promised McKendall someone would take it from her husband, McSurely said.

"He knew immediately they've been violating their own [standard operating procedures]," he said.

Secor argued that any promises were considered "words of comfort," not to be taken literally as promises for protection.

The same investigator told McKendall "the sheriff knows better and he could rely on the sheriff to do better," McSurely said. Despite promises to seize Randy McKendall's gun, the sheriff's department seized only a shotgun even though they found a shell casing from the 9 mm from the television shooting.

The lawsuit also includes claims that Webster treats black women's complaints of domestic violence abuse different from white women's.

Superior Court Judge Ken Titus said he would make a decision on whether the case could proceed by the end of the week.

Staff writer Jessica Rocha can be reached at 932-2008 or jessica.rocha@newsobserver.com.

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