Springs woman shoots, kills man

A Colorado Springs woman had a restraining order against a man she shot and killed Monday morning at her east-side home, police spokesman Lt. Skip Arms said.

Lisa Jean Hinkle, 52, shot Kyle Levi Haner, 27, once in the chest with a handgun shortly after 9 a.m. at 1222 Lewis Lane near Galley Road and Powers Boulevard, police said.

Immediately after the shooting, Hinkle called 911 to report shooting a man in self-defense, according to police.

Haner was pronounced dead at 9:45 a.m. at Memorial Hospital. His death is the 24th homicide in the city this year, four fewer than the record of 28 homicides in 1991.

Police questioned and released Hinkle. The shooting is under investigation, Arms said.

Court records and police reports reveal a rocky two-year relationship between Hinkle and Haner.

Arms said the two had a history of domestic violence.

During an argument Nov. 16 at the house, Haner threatened to kill Hinkle and her family, a police report said. As the fight escalated, Hinkle grabbed a pellet gun and hit Haner in the forehead with it, the report said.

Haner then trapped Hinkle in the backyard by securing the front door of the house with a chain lock and the backyard gate with heavygauge wire, the report said.

According to the report, Hinkle said Haner told her there was “no place on earth I could hide from him,” but added her boyfriend “needs help, not jail.”

“He can be wonderful,” Hinkle told police.

Haner pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in connection with the fight and received a two-year deferred sentence.

Hinkle applied for and received a temporary restraining order against Haner and they had been scheduled to appear in court about a halfhour before the fatal shooting Monday for a hearing on a permanent restraining order.

Neither attended the hearing, and the request was dismissed, court officials said. The temporary restraining order remained in effect, police said.

Several of this year’s homicides have resulted from domestic violence, including one man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend in a Garden of the Gods parking lot in June and another man accused of dumping his girlfriend’s body in an eastern Colorado Springs field in July.

Neighbors said Hinkle and Haner rented the house.

“I was shocked when I heard what was going on,” said a Lewis Lane neighbor who declined to give her name.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0274 or jennifer.wilson@gazette.com

Staff writer Dennis Huspeni contributed to this report.