Huntington Beach Man Held in Slaying of Ex-Wife in Spokane

As their sons waited in a car, police allege that a Huntington Beach man walked up to his former wife’s door in Spokane, Wash., on Christmas Day and killed her with a blast from a sawed-off shotgun.

Raymond Valentine Brytan, 46, was in Spokane to visit his sons, ages 5 and 9, Spokane police said. They identified Brytan as a fifth-grade teacher in the Compton School District in Los Angeles County and a resident of Huntington Beach.

“It happened in a few seconds,” said Sgt. Gene Ziegler. “Brytan drove up to the house and went to the door. His former wife came to the door, and he pointed a .12-gauge, sawed-off shotgun at her and shot her in the right side of the stomach.”

The woman, Vera A. Perry, 43, died on the spot.

Ziegler said that Brytan fired a second shotgun blast into Perry’s home, but police aren’t sure if that shot was aimed at her current husband, Michael Perry, who was inside nearby. That shot missed, but Perry suffered head cuts from the shotgun as he struggled to pull the weapon away from Brytan, Ziegler said.

Brytan fled after the 5:19 p.m. shooting, Ziegler said, but neighbors seized him and held him until police arrived. The two boys were cared for by a neighbor until their stepfather returned from the hospital for treatment of his head cuts, investigators said.

Ziegler said Brytan was charged with the first-degree murder of his former wife.

“We don’t know the reason for the shooting,” Ziegler said. “We suppose it was friction between the man and his former wife.”

Police said they didn’t know how long Brytan had been divorced or details of the custody arrangement.

A neighbor of Vera Perry said in a telephone interview Friday that Vera and Michael Perry had moved into the quiet Spokane neighborhood in September, 1985.

“Vera didn’t know Ray (Brytan) was coming here (to Spokane),” said the neighbor, Shirley Komar. “She found out he was here when he tried to pick the boys up at their school (Dec. 18).”

Komar said that Vera Perry subsequently met with Brytan and arranged for him to spend day hours with the boys during their Christmas vacation from school, which started last Monday.

“I think she was afraid of him, but she wouldn’t admit it,” Komar said. “But she told me Christmas Eve that everything was working out all right during the visit.

“Ray picked up the boys at noon on Christmas, and he was supposed to have them until supper. They were in the car when he went to the door. That’s when the shooting took place. There were two blasts, and then Michael (Perry) came out hollering, ‘He’s killed my wife!’ ”