ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — A man who took his estranged wife hostage before shooting her in the head in southern Alberta has died in custody in British Columbia.
Correctional Service Canada did not say how 66-year-old Leonard Louis Wright died, but said his death will be reviewed by the agency.
Wright was given a life sentence for the second-degree murder of his wife Jacqueline Wright, who was 35.
In June 1991, Jacqueline Wright called police saying her estranged husband was trying to break into her home in Claresholm, Alta.
When RCMP responded they saw the couple struggling over a rifle in the backyard.
Not wanting to see the woman or officers hurt, police said they pulled back and waited for the emergency response team to get to the community, about 130 kilometres south of Calgary.
Ninety minutes later, officers heard the shot that killed Jacqueline Wright and Leonard Wright was tackled as he fled the scene.
Supt. Owen Maguire of Lethbridge RCMP said at the time that officers had no opportunity to intervene before the fatal shot was fired.
''I grieve for the victim, I really do, but it wouldn't have done any good to have a couple of dead policemen on our hands,'' he said at the time.
Court heard how Leonard Wright, who had been drinking that night, pleaded with the arresting officers to kill him.
He also told the judge he wished he could be given the death penalty when he was sentenced to life.
He was being held at the Pacific Institution in the Fraser Valley and he died at the hospital in Abbotsford, B.C.
