MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A Tennessee sheriff whose office has been under investigation for civil rights violations shot himself to death Saturday at a service station, police said.
Shelby County Sheriff Jack Owens, 56, shot himself in the face with a sheriff's department shotgun, Lt. Carl Goolsby said.
Two other Tennessee public officials have committed suicide in the past 17 months.
'A preliminary investigation was that it was self-inflicted,' Goolsby said of the shooting involving the controversial Owens, the sheriff of the state's largest county.
'He was sitting in his car at Hollywood and James. There was no speculation as to why he did it. He used a 20-gauge pump shotgun Shelby County issue with a folding stock. He shot himself in the face,' Goolsby said.
At a news conference Saturday afternoon, Memphis Police Director James Ivy, said three employees of the service station witnessed the incident.
'They advised that Owens is a regular customer of the service station and that he bought gas by way of his credit card and asked for a rag and oil because he wanted to oil a shotgun on the seat beside him,' Ivy said.
'The shotgun was lifted after the oil and rag had been used. The barrel was pointed upward toward the head and the rifle discharged, striking him in the face.'
Ivy said no note has been recovered.
'We are always at a loss when something like this occurs but we don't have any earthly idea of what might have prompted this action,' Ivy said.
Goolsby said that Owens was a decorated Army veteran in both Korea and Vietnam, where he served two tours of duty. Owens had been sheriff since August 1986 and intended to run for re-election this year.
Police said they received a call that a man had shot himself at a Gulf gas station at 10:41 a.m. The man was later determined to be Owens.
Tennessee Secretary of State Gentry Crowell shot himself in the head Dec. 12, 1988, and died eight days later. At the time of Crowell's death his office was under an investigative cloud because of a statewide bingo corruption scandal.
On July 17, 1989, Ted Ray Miller, an influential member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, committed suicide with a shotgun blast to the head at his Knoxville home. At the time the Knoxville Democrat was the focus of an extortion investigation.
Owens' office was under investigation for civil rights violations. Authorities gave few details about the nature of the probe. Although federal officials had never said the sheriff himself was under investigation by a federal grand jury, two separate investigations have been under way.
'I'm sure that it's going to be in people's minds that it might have been caused by that,' Ivy said of the shooting. 'I don't care to speculate what might have prompted this.'
A grand jury issued indictments two weeks ago against three of his deputies in the death of Michael Gates, 28, last June.
Gates was beaten to death during a 'jump and grab' undercover sting operation in which officers posing as drug dealers would nab suspects after a transaction. Seventeen deputies were suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.
The sting came under fire by civil rights advocates and black leaders in the community.
Several of Owens' top deputies had testified in recent months before the grand jury about financial matters involving the department in a probe unrelated to Gates' death.
At one point as sheriff, Owens wanted to require all deputies to be stunned with a stun gun as part of their training in using the weapon. The deputies' union filed suit and won an injunction against the practice and Owens eventually dropped the requirement.
He had also been criticized for the high number of black officers who had been fired under his administration against a relatively small number of whites.
