Mormon Missionary Shot and Killed by Night Watchman

LISBON, Portugal (AP) _ A night watchman who shot and killed a 19-year-old U.S. missionary of the Mormon Church has been released on his own recognizance after a preliminary hearing, police sources said today.

″There was a hearing yesterday,″ a spokesman at Sintra district court told reporters, ″and the watchman was not ordered kept in custody, but it looks like charges will be brought against him later.″

According to police, the watchman said he chased four young men early Wednesday in the Lisbon suburb of Queluz after what looked like an attempted car theft. One of the four was caught, but was killed when he tried to grab the watchman’s gun and it went off accidentally in a struggle, the watchman told police.

The victim was identified as Roger Todd Hunt, 19, of Las Vegas, Nev. Police did not identify the watchman.

U.S. consul Harry Jones told The Associated Press that Hunt’s three friends said they had been tossing firecrackers into an abandoned car but ran off when a man yelled at them to stop. He said the three friends also are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Jones said the other missionaries said the watchman was wearing no uniform, did not identify himself and fired three warning shots in the air as they ran off. The group separated while running away, and only later heard the fourth shot, apparently the one that killed Hunt.

Jones said of the watchman’s account: ″This is not true, from what we now know.″

Reuben Ficklin, president of the Mormons’ mission in Portugal, told the AP: ″I found the original story very difficult to believe, given his (Hunt’s) friendly, studious nature.″

Ficklin said Hunt’s body would be flown home Saturday.

He said the church has 30,000 missionaries around the world, and that it began its missionary work in Portugal in 1974. He said there are 200 missionaries and more than 10,000 followers in Portugal.