‘Please don’t kill me’: Cops interrupt chilling incident

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A bond hearing is coming up for a man accused of holding his estranged wife at gunpoint and threatening to set her on fire before deputies showed up.

Deputies responded to the 2400 block of Lisbon Road just before 3:40 a.m. Feb. 12 after receiving a 911 call with no one on the line.

Upon arrival, a deputy heard a woman scream out, “Please don’t kill me,” and a gunshot.

Deputies said they kicked in the side door and found victim Matilyn Ward on the floor with her estranged husband Frank Ward wielding a revolver.

Frank Ward complied with deputies’ commands and they took him into custody.

Matilyn Ward said it all started after she had dropped her daughter off with Frank Ward — who’d been living separately from her for two months during the divorce process — but later was awakened by footsteps in her residence. She said when she called out, Frank Ward violently pushed open her bedroom door, struck her in the face and pressed a gasoline-soaked towel over her face.

She said he held her down and demanded to know who she had been talking to on her cellphone.

She grabbed her cellphone and dialed 911, but he grabbed it back and hung up the call, then wiped the gasoline over her body while threatening to kill and burn her, she told deputies.

She said he struck her in the head with a large pistol and pointed it at her head, and she heard a loud bang.

She briefly broke free before he tackled her and fired a gunshot as deputies arrived, she told authorities.

Deputies said they found evidence that included two bullet holes, two shell casings in the gun and blood droplets.

The 61-year-old suspect is charged hindering a person making an emergency call, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm or knife during a crime, burglary in the first degree and aggravated assault, according to law enforcement records.

As of Monday, he was still being held in Richmond County jail.

However, a bond hearing could change that.

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