I WOULD GIVE LOVE ANOTHER SHOT
HEARTBROKEN HUBBY, 72, SORRY HE BLASTED 28-YEAR-OLD BRIDE
AW, SHOOT, he still loves her.
A 72-year-old man who shot his 28-year-old wife after she allegedly told him he couldn’t satisfy her financially or sexually said Sunday he still cared deeply for his much younger significant other.
Clarence White, who is charged with the attempted murder of Dominique White, said he was relieved his spouse was in stable condition after he shot her in the right cheek.
“I’m so glad,” he told the Daily News in a jailhouse interview at the Vernon C. Bain Center in the Bronx.
“I love her so much . . . I’m just so glad she’ll be OK. If she loves me, if she hates me, all that matters is she’s OK.”
Clarence White, who was also meeting with his son, Cheo White, during the sitdown, was evasive when asked why he had pulled the gun during the dispute Thursday morning at his home in Parkchester, the Bronx.
“When I saw that blood, how it was, I knew it was bad,” he said, recalling the moment when he shot Dominique. “She looked at me and said, ‘I love you.’ ”
Sources said Clarence White told police he and his wife were arguing in the hours leading up to the shooting. Money had recently become tight.
During the argument, Dominique ordered Clarence to move out, sources said. She also took a jab at his sexual prowess, according to sources.
Neither Dominique nor her family could be reached for comment. A Jacobi Medical Center official said she’d been discharged from the hospital.
Clarence White told cops that ”as he was packing his bags he came across the .22-caliber gun, sources said.
“It was an accident. I don’t know what I was trying to do . . . scare her, I guess,” White said, shaking his head.
White, an Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War, opened fire and called 911.
“I was carrying her downstairs, because we’re on the second floor, and (police) had their guns drawn and so I had to put her down . . . but I saw she was able to walk to the ambulance,” the septuagenarian shooter said.
Court papers said White told police, “I shot my wife” while still holding the smoking gun.
Dominique White’s 4-year-old daughter, who was living with the couple, was not at home at the time.
Clarence recalled meeting Dominique three years ago, when his best friend was dying of cancer. Dominique was the friend’s home health aide.
Clarence White’s previous wife of over 30 years had recently died from cancer , he said.
“She came into my life and she helped me so much,” he said.
They’d gotten married in a civil ceremony 21/2 years ago, which took the family by surprise, Cheo, 43, said.
He was unsure of Dominique’s motives.
He was also stunned by the violence — but said his dad, who recently worked as a boxing trainer, had changed since meeting Dominique.
“He stopped going to the gym every day. He never used to drink, not a drop. He even started taking a drink once in a while . . . He became distant,” Cheo said.
“He never even hit us growing up.”
Clarence White, who also faces charges of assault, harassment and weapons possession, is being held on $300,000 bail.