Wife called 911 hour before fatal shooting of Dean Ripa

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) —  “My husband is attacking me.”

That’s one of the statements a caller made to 911 Saturday afternoon, an hour before Dean Ripa was shot and killed in his apartment above the Cape Fear Serpentarium.

Though she doesn’t say her name, the caller tells the operator her husband’s name is Dean and she’s in the living room with their 3-year-old child.

She then tells the 911 operator two men are attacking her, but later says one of the men is a mutual friend and might be ready to attack her, but she doesn’t know.

After nearly nine and a half minutes, an officer arrives.

You can hear the caller tell the officer she doesn’t know what’s going on, but her husband called the police on her and makes up stories about her.

She then tells the operator, “Ma’am, I need an ambulance for my husband, he’s not balanced in the head.”

While she’s on the phone with 911, her husband also calls 911.

“My wife is having an emotional breakdown… she’s a paranoid schizophrenic. She’s been in and out of The Oaks there at the hospital. Refuses to take her medication. Now she’s having an attack, she’s having a paranoid attack, she’s convinced that I and (unintelligible) is attacking her,” he tells the operator. “No one is attacking anybody. She is calling somebody on the other line, don’t know if it’s you guys or who saying that myself and the man that works here is attacking her.”

Less than an hour later, another woman calls 911 asking for a welfare check after spotting a distraught woman and child at the corner of South Water and Ann Streets.

This caller tells the operator she’s not sure what’s going on, but there’s a mother with her child and she’s in distress.

The operator asks about the child.

“He’s ok. He seems a little shaken. He said somebody hurt his dad,” the caller tells 911. The operator tells the caller police are on the way.

About 10 minutes after that call, a man calls 911 for help, after finding Ripa shot in his apartment.

“He’s been shot in the head,” he tells the operator. “I believe it was his wife, she took their baby and left.”

The caller tells the operator Ripa is in the bedroom on the floor and has labored breathing.

Ripa died at the scene.

His wife Regina Ripa is charged with murder and remains in jail under no bond.

We’ll have more on these calls and speak with Regina Ripa’s father tonight on WWAY.