A neighborhood is in shock after a man they say was a good neighbor and a good friend stabbed his wife to death then stabbed a police K-9 before officers shot him.
Gail Bradley, 50, died Friday morning after her husband Willard Anthony Bradley killed her in their Paradise Hills home in the 6400 block of Lockford Avenue.
"This is a quiet neighborhood, this was a big shock, said neighbor Linda Telge.
The scene of a gruesome murder is now a place where neighbors and their children pay their respects in a small memorial.
“For us, it's a big loss,” friend and neighbor Esther Carson said.
Gail Bradley called police just after 8:45 a.m. Friday morning saying her husband was threatening to commit suicide, police said. Willard Anthony Bradley, 51, known as "Tony" charged at officers with a knife and slashed a police K-9. Gail’s body, which had suffered stab wounds, was found in another room in the house.
“They were both my friends. Their daughter is my daughter’s best friend,” Carson said. She says the real victim is the couple's 8 year-old daughter. “We wanted to go hug her, be with her,” said Carson.
Friends say a social worker is trying to find the Bradley's daughter a permanent home, but for now she's in foster care. Neighbors hope that next week she will go home with some kind of family.
Willard Bradley had a history of violence, according to a published report. Bradley had just filed a restraining order against her husband on March 6. Deputies had removed the man from the home that same day.
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It was not the first time Bradley had a restraining order filed against him, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Another woman had filed one against him in 1998 for at least 20 different incidents of violent behavior—including throwing the woman down the stairs, turning a dryer over on top of her, choking and slapping her against the wall.
Neighbors said the couple was estranged and that Gail had sought the restraining order to protect her from her husband's violent temper.
“We knew him as a neighbor and as a friend. We didn't know his baggage and his background,” Carson recalled
Carson said Gail was soft-spoken and kind. Above all she was a loving mother.
“We just love her and are going to miss her,” she said. “She will always be in my thoughts.”
Earp, an 8-year old German Shepherd, is lucky to be alive according to the veterinarian who operated on the dog. The dog had suffered a severed blood vessel in the attack and had lost a lot of blood. According to police, his sacrifice was not in vain. Police say the dog probably saved an officer’s life.
Earp is set to retire in a few months.
