William Joseph Lewis, 30, of Ocala, was arrested on a charge of manslaughter

A woman was shot and killed in southeast Ocala early Wednesday as her husband wrestled with his cousin over a shotgun.

The cousin, 30-year-old William Joseph Lewis of Ocala, told police he had come to their house at 807 SE 33rd Ave. seeking a place to stay for the night.

He ended up causing the death of Autumn Feehley, 31, and being arrested on a manslaughter charge, according to an Ocala Police Department arrest report.

"This was an accident. This was not anything that was done on purpose or maliciously," Lewis said as he was led to a police car at OPD. "This was not supposed to happen like this."

He did not bring a gun to the encounter, Lewis said. "I had a gun pulled on me, and I got scared."

A neighbor told the Star-Banner on Wednesday morning that she had heard a shot fired around 2 a.m., and then someone started banging on the front door. The neighbor did not open it but called 911.

Police received the call at 2:14 a.m. When officers arrived, they found Feehley just outside the home with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Her husband, Christopher O'Brien, 32, was putting pressure on the wound. Lewis was sitting next to him, according to the OPD report.

O'Brien told officers he had been holding a shotgun and Lewis jumped on him outside the home, causing the shotgun to go off. As more officers arrived, Lewis fled.

Feehley was taken by ambulance to Ocala Regional Medical Center, where she died.

O'Brien later told Detective Dustin Todd that he and his wife were in bed when they heard "aggressive knocking on the door," according to Todd's report. O'Brien said he thought Lewis was at the door because he had visited the home twice this week.

O'Brien said he was afraid of Lewis because he is aggressive and is known to hurt people. He said Lewis was upset at him because O'Brien had been helping Lewis' ex-girlfriend.

O'Brien said he told him to leave five or six times before opening the door.

He opened it with the shotgun in his hand — but said it wasn't pointed at anyone — and told Lewis to leave, according to the report. O'Brien said he stepped out of the doorway and Lewis grabbed him and the gun. They fell down, he said, and both had their hands on the shotgun, pulling it toward themselves.

The gun went off, O'Brien said, but his hand was not on the trigger portion of the shotgun. O'Brien said he did not know that his wife had come outside.

When the gun went off, he said, Lewis noticed that Feehley had been shot. While O'Brien was attending to his wife, he told Lewis to get help. Lewis went to a neighbor's home, asking for someone to call 911.

About an hour after the shooting, Lewis called 911 to talk to police about the incident.

The dispatcher transferred the call to Sgt. Erica Hay, according to the arrest report. Lewis told Hay that O'Brien had told him through the door to leave.

At OPD, Lewis told detectives he went to O'Brien's home because he needed a place to stay for the night. He yelled through the door to O'Brien, telling him who he was.

Lewis said he sat down and he waited for O'Brien to open the door. When he did, Lewis saw an orange firearm pointed at his head, according to his account.

Lewis said he wrapped O'Brien in a bear hug, trying to get the firearm, the report states. They wrestled for the gun and it went off.

Detective Todd noted that O'Brien did have an orange flare gun in his pocket when he confronted Lewis. But it was the shotgun that killed Feehley. The flare gun fell on the sidewalk in front of the home as the men struggled.

Detectives determined that Lewis had every opportunity to leave, but did not. They said that O'Brien was fearful of Lewis, and when O'Brien opened the door and stepped out in the yard, Lewis fought O'Brien for the gun and it discharged.

During the investigation Wednesday, Ocala police detectives obtained a search warrant of the home to collect evidence in the case.

Contact Austin L. Miller at 867-4118, austin.miller@starbanner.com or @almillerosb.