Wife of man shot by police said she was in no danger

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The wife of a Tulsa man killed by police during a domestic abuse call claims police went too far in shooting her husband. Iva Lovaton told the Tulsa World that she was in no real

Monday, July 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The wife of a Tulsa man killed by police during a domestic abuse call claims police went too far in shooting her husband. Iva Lovaton told the Tulsa World that she was in no real danger from her husband, Bertoldo Lovaton, who was wielding a 12-inch butcher knife when he was shot by police on Saturday night. Police found 44-year-old Iva Lovaton uninjured and barricaded in a closet inside the apartment, said Tulsa police spokesman Officer Lucky Lamons. â€œShe had recently asked her husband for a divorce. Her husband was trying to leave the building after an argument, like she had asked him to do, said Iva Lovaton. "I didn't hear them order Bertoldo to drop the knife or anything," she said. "I just heard the shot ... It didn't have to end this way."

Bertoldo Lovaton was taken to Hillcrest hospital where he died an hour later, a hospital spokesman said. Officer Darren Glanz reported hearing screams coming from the apartment building when he arrived in response to a 911 call from a Lovaton family friend, Roberta Dampf. Glanz went inside alone. The police report indicates that Glan zfound an apparently drunken 32-year-old Bertoldo Lovaton in the second-floor hallway standing outside his apartment with a 12-inch butcher knife.

The officer ordered Bertoldo Lovaton to "stop" in Spanish when the man started to go back inside the apartment. Lovaton was Hispanic and did not understand much English. When he did not stop, Glanz shot him once in the side. Lamons said Glanz did not know where Iva Lovaton was inside the apartment when her husband started to go back inside with the butcher knife. "She could have been in immediate danger," he said.

Bertoldo had been previously arrested for complaints of public intoxication and on a domestic assault complaint. Glanz was placed on paid leave while the shooting is investigated, Lamons said. The officer has been with the Tulsa Police Department for four years as a patrol officer out of Uniform Division North. Detectives will be preparing a report on the shooting. It will be forwarded to the Deadly Force Review Board and to Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris. Glanz is the son of Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz.