Woman Kills Self After Confessing on Radio Show to 2 Attacks

For two nights in a row, a disturbed woman kept listeners to a radio show heard all over the West spellbound as she confessed to shooting at two people and contemplating suicide.

Early Friday, Patricia Nelan, a homeless woman from Oxnard, followed through on her threat, fatally shooting herself during a standoff with police in Sylmar.

Nelan, 46, had confessed during the “Tammy Bruce Show” on KFI-AM (640) to shooting at a Santa Barbara social worker Wednesday evening and seriously wounding an elderly Ventura woman three hours later, police said.

Michelle Hanson, 68, was in stable but serious condition Friday at the Ventura County Medical Center with shotgun pellets lodged in her back and shoulder, a hospital spokeswoman said. Her family did not want to comment on the incident.

Kathleen Fortier, the other target of Nelan’s rage, was back at work Friday. A day earlier, she told her husband that she had forgiven Nelan.

“I thought that was hard to do, but she said she had already forgiven her,” William Fortier said.

This is the second time that Kathleen Fortier has survived such a shooting. Three years ago, she escaped unharmed after a gunman opened fire in an Oxnard unemployment agency. The gunman, Alan Winterbourne, killed four people before he was killed in a hail of police gunfire.

Nelan’s bizarre odyssey began Wednesday at 7:20 p.m. when she aimed her shotgun at Fortier as the social worker was leaving her job at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in Santa Barbara.

Nelan, who lived in her 1985 Toyota pickup, had frequently gone to the organization to discuss what she called a “neurological condition,” said Santa Barbara Police Sgt. Brian Abbott.

Nelan did not have multiple sclerosis, but Fortier once had given Nelan a referral to see mental health workers, Abbott said.

As Fortier was walking to her car, she noticed Nelan and the shotgun, he said. Fortier started running as Nelan raised the weapon, firing off a round and narrowly missing her, Abbott said.

About three hours later, Nelan arrived at Hanson’s home in the Ondulando neighborhood of Ventura. Hanson, who at one time employed Nelan, was at home alone. Nelan fired a shotgun blast through Hanson’s living room window, hitting her in the back and shoulder, said Ventura Police Sgt. George Morris.

It was 1:20 Thursday morning when Nelan called KFI and talked to host Tammy Bruce on the air.

Nelan complained that social workers were withholding medication she needed.

“She was very guarded and afraid,” Bruce said. “I definitely think she had some mental problems. She was someone who fell through the cracks.”

The audience response was overwhelming, Bruce said, with many listeners expressing sympathy for Nelan.

“We had listeners giving their phone numbers in case they could help,” she said. “The switchboard was lit up.”

Bruce’s producer contacted Santa Barbara Police Det. Mike McGrew, who was patched into the call and talked to Nelan for more than hour--some of it on the air, authorities said.

Nelan admitted to McGrew that she shot at Fortier, saying she was frustrated with the treatment she had received for her medical problems.

Bruce and McGrew tried to convince Nelan to turn herself into police or at the very least refrain from shooting anyone else, Bruce said.

Police were unable to track Nelan after the call, but put out a warrant for her arrest.

The next night, Bruce appealed to Nelan to call, and she did, this time apparently drunk, saying she was in Los Angeles, Bruce said.

This time it was Morris who was patched through to talk to Nelan.

The woman admitted shooting Hanson, Morris said.

“She kind of went back and forth about whether she wanted to kill Hanson or not,” he said. “She also said she wanted to kill herself.”

During her talk with Morris, Nelan said she had worked as a caretaker for Hanson’s mother. She told Morris that she was upset with Hanson for the way Hanson treated her mother.

After Nelan hung up, a listener called to say that there was a lot of activity around a truck in Sylmar that matched the description that KFI had been broadcasting.

About that time, the Los Angeles Police Department had received a call about an assault with a deadly weapon at a Motel 6 on Encinitas Avenue. Nelan had allegedly threatened a security guard in the motel parking lot and was driving off when police arrived.

When officers approached Nelan’s truck, she shot herself, police said.

“It’s a shame that it ended the way it did,” Morris said.

Times staff writer Scott Glover contributed to this story.