Duane Chapman, who rose to fame on his TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter, married Francie Chapman in 2021.
In a heartbreaking event that unfolded over the weekend, Francie’s son, Gregory Zecca, is said to have fatally shot his teenage son Anthony.
According to reports, the shooting, which the family say was an accident, took place in a Naples, Florida, apartment on July 19. Police confirmed that a shooting took place around 8pm on the day in question and described it as an ‘isolated incident’, TMZ reports.
The investigation is ongoing and there isn’t thought to have been any arrests made yet.
Addressing the heartbreaking ordeal, Chapman’s representative told TMZ: “We are grieving as a family over this incomprehensible tragic accident and would ask for continued prayers as we grieve the loss of our beloved grandson, Anthony.”
Francie and Dog seen with Anthony (Instagram/franciedogchapman)
UNILAD have approached Chapman’s rep for additional comment.
Anthony’s father, Gregory, is Francie’s son from a previous marriage. She and Chapman connected with one another while both grieving the loss of their respective spouses.
Chapman’s wife of 13 years Beth passed away in June 2019 from cancer. Francie’s late husband Bob died of cancer as well, six months before Beth’s passing.
Speaking about how their grief united them, Francie told Entertainment Tonight in 2020: “We understood the pain that the other one was feeling and [in] those tough days and moments, we helped each other stand up.
“We could cry with each other and talk about what we were feeling. We were able to walk alongside each other through the pain and heartbreak and it brought us together in this amazing way.”
Duane Chapman seen with his late wife Beth in 2017 (Darryl Oumi/Getty Images)
Francie continued to say of their late spouses: “We’re never going to leave Bob and Beth behind [or] forget about them. They’ll always be a part of us. We thought we were going to spend the rest of our lives with them and that’s not what happened and we were dealt a really hard hand.”
Chapman has been married six times and has fathered 13 kids whom he shares with his ex wives.
In 2023, he announced that he had a secret son named Jon, bringing his total number of children to 13.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/franciedogchapman
Adrienne Jones-McAllister was by the side of her husband, 61-year-old Kevin, when the incident occurred at Nassau Open MRI in Westbury, N.Y on July 16.
‘He went limp in my arms,’ Jones-McAllister told News 12 Long Island, ‘and this is still pulsating in my brain’.
The harrowing moment took place when Adrienne was undergoing an MRI on her knee at the clinic.
Police later responded to a 911 call at the location just after 4:30 pm local time, where it was described that a man (identified at Kevin) had suffered a ‘medical episode’ after he was caught in the machine, as per the Nassau County Police Department (NCPD)’s news release.
Kevin McAllister was ‘snatched’ by the MRI machine (News 12)
The officers were informed that the man ‘entered an unauthorized Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) room while the scan was in progress,’ the police department said in a statement.
“The male victim was wearing a large metallic chain around his neck causing him to be drawn into the machine which resulted in a medical episode,” police said.
Sadly, two days later, it was reported that he had ‘succumbed to his injuries and was declared deceased by a hospital physician’.
According to his wife, Kevin had suffered several heart attacks after the incident.
She told the outlet she ‘saw the machine snatch him’ and ‘pull him’ in, after he was let into the MRI room.
Recalling the incident, she explained how after her MRI on her knee, she asked the technician to bring her husband to the room to help her get up.
She shared that he was then let into the room, even though he was wearing a 20-lbs chain necklace that he wore for weight training purposes.
“In that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in, and he hit the MRI,” she said.
He was stuck on the machine, which uses extremely powerful magnets to scan the body for ailments and ‘non-bony parts or soft tissue’, as per the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
This is when Adrienne explained that she and the technician tried to pull her husband off of the machine, but they couldn’t set him free.
At the time, she said she was calling for help, stating: “I was saying, ‘Could you turn off the machine? Call 911. Do something. Turn this damn thing off!’”
As per the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, patients are asked to remove metal and electrical objects before an MRI.
However, the wife shared that the MRI on July 16 was not the first time she and her husband had been at Nassau Open MRI.
It allegedly was not the first time that the employee had seen Kevin’s chain, as she claimed: “They had a conversation about it before: ‘Oh that’s a big chain.’”
Since his tragic death, she admitted to suffering with her sleep, stating: “I haven’t been able to sleep, I’m barely eating, I just can’t believe [it].
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. He waved goodbye to me, and his whole body went limp.”
According to the NCPD, an investigation is underway.
A six-year-old girl has been tragically shot dead by another child in South Carolina.
Police were called to a Eutawville home at around 3:40pm on Wednesday (7 August) afternoon.
Officers from the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Department were informed of reports of a shooting.
When police arrived at the scene, they quickly discovered the girl had been shot by another child in her home.
Officials state the girl was immediately rushed to hospital, where she later died after suffering a single gunshot wound to the upper body.
The six-year-old died last week. (Facebook/Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office)
Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said: “My heart is extremely heavy at having to let the public know what happened.
“This type of incident, this type of investigation is one of the hardest an investigator will ever do.
“We are broken-hearted over this tragic loss of a little princes. We lost someone precious this week.”
An incident report, which has just been released, revealed officers were called to a house on Fountain Lake Drive.
This is where the six-year-old’s aunt lives, who was able to shed some light on the situation.
Living next door, the aunt said the girl’s dad approached deputies holding his daughter’s head.
The aunt thought the six-year-old had been shot in the head on initial assumption.
A police investigation has taken place. (Getty Stock Photo)
The father was not spoken to by police at the time as he was helping transport his wounded daughter to hospital.
Barry Hutson, Orangeburg County Chief Deputy Chandra Gibbs said: “You got a child that doesn’t have a life because of a serious mistake and it’s an ongoing problem in the whole world.
“Our job there was to, as much as we could, provide immediate assistance and working with our EMS to secure the scene so that they could provide immediate medical care and get her transported to our local hospital.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Gibbs added: “We’re focusing on making sure that we’re providing that care for [the family] while maintaining education to other families across our country to make sure that they are having those conversations in their homes [about gun safety] and we are also engaged in those conversations as well as far as education and awareness in keeping guns secure.”
The incident has sent shockwaves through the local community, with resident Jessie Mott telling WIS10: “It’s really shocking. I used to be a teacher so looking at it, the kids weren’t in school, so it’s kind of like, I don’t know, but it’s hard. I have a niece and nephew that are 7 years old…”
Featured Image Credit: Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office/wrdw
