Man murdered answering front door

By Dustin Kass, dustinKass@miconews.com

Police officials search around the outside of the home at 816 Chestnut Ave. on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday night, Osawatomie police discovered Billy Gene Cooper slain inside the home, apparently killed as he answered his front door, police said. (Photo by Dustin Kass / dustinkass@miconews.com)

An Osawatomie man was murdered Tuesday night answering the door of the home he rented, police said, and as the search for leads in the case continues, his family remembers all the unique traits that made Billy Gene Cooper who he was.

Police responded to 816 Chestnut Ave. at 10:18 p.m. Tuesday, minutes after a rapid burst of gunfire echoed through the neighborhood. Officers found Cooper, 41, in the living room, dead of apparent gunshot wounds, Osawatomie Assistant Police Chief Bob Butters said.

Butters said nine shots were fired at Cooper, several piercing the front door, apparently as the man answered his door. An undisclosed number of the shots struck Cooper, and he died before police arrived at the scene. An autopsy was performed on Wednesday.

Sharon Joles, who lives on nearby South Street, was roused just before the shooting by the barking of her dog. She stepped outside her home to check on the animal and saw a man in baggy blue jeans, a black-and-white coat and a stocking cap walking toward the Cooper home in the alley just behind her house. She estimates it was just a minute later when shots rang out, which led her to think the man may have been involved. Butters said the lead was being investigated.

Neighbors described hearing the gunshots in rapid succession, which prompted several of them to call 911. Witnesses described seeing two vehicles speeding away from the house just after the shots were fired. Police located a white van and a maroon four-door car and interviewed the occupants, Butters said.

No one was in custody as of Thursday morning, and Butters said officers had already interviewed more than a dozen people in connection with the case. He said the possibility that there was a drug connection to the case was being investigated.

Osawatomie police, assisted by units from the Paola Police Department, Miami County Sheriff’s Office and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, spent the remainder of Tuesday night and the early-morning hours on Wednesday working at the scene.

Cooper’s family closely watched the police’s efforts from the home next door, where Cooper’s ex-wife and two of his daughters live.

After the crime-scene tape came down on Wednesday, many of Cooper’s family and friends remained gathered at the nearby home, mourning and remembering the man who they sometimes jokingly called “Kid Rock” because of his penchant for wearing bandanas.

Cooper came to Osawatomie from Oklahoma, where he was born and raised, following the death of his mother last May. He wanted to be closer to his family, said Lora Cooper, his ex-wife. Lora and Billy divorced in 1996 after 10 years of marriage, but Billy moved to Osawatomie to be closer to his three daughters — Amber, 22; Wendy, 14; and Cheyenne, 12.

“He just wanted to be nearer to the girls,” Lora said through tears. “… We always been friends since the divorce.

“He always had my back.”

Last summer’s flood claimed Cooper’s first Osawatomie residence and, after a short period of time, he started renting the home right next to his ex-wife’s house. Soon, everybody in the neighborhood knew Billy for the character he was, his family said. Neighbors recalled how honest and direct Billy was — “never one to b.s. you” — and chuckled when recalling his constant shirtlessness, a trait his family said was just part of Billy being Billy.

“He never wore a shirt,” Lora said. “Only time was when he was going to church.”

His family admitted that Billy struggled through some drug problems, but they said it never kept him from being there for them. Though he couldn’t work because of an injury that claimed his ring finger, Billy always put the money he did have toward his daughters. All three girls’ cell phones were in his name, “just so he could call them more,” Lora said.

“He was always texting me, telling me that he loved me,” Cheyenne said, her feet curled up beneath her on the couch and a wearied smile on her face. “I’d always say, ‘I love you more.’”

That closeness meant the girls were always in contact with Billy, talking on the phone and dropping in next door, even if they didn’t always agree with his decorating choices. Amber laughed and called her dad a “true hillbilly” when she talked about seeing a stick, just a normal, everyday stick, adorning one of the walls in the house.

“And what about the remote control?” Wendy said.

“Yeah, you know what his remote control was?” Amber said. “I’d ask him, and he’d pull out this long stick he’d use to turn the channels from the couch.”

Two of the girls were asleep in their house when the shooting occurred next door. While they struggled to make sense of what happened Tuesday night, Billy’s daughters had no uncertainty about the father they had just lost.

“He would do anything for us,” Amber said.

“He just had such a big heart,” Wendy said.