MAN KILLED BY POLICE WAS ADDICTED TO DRUGS

SALT LAKE CITY -- A man who was killed Monday by a police sniper after a
two-hour armed standoff at a Rite Aid Pharmacy had struggled with a painful
injury and an addiction to pain medication, the man"s mother said.

Melodie Anderson also said she doesn"t blame police for shooting Ronney
Rickey Marler.

"That gentleman is not responsible at all, nor is anybody else," Anderson
said of the sniper. "What took place today took place because Ronney had
taken all he could take. Ronney went up there knowing full well what was
going to happen."

Anderson traced her 30-year-old son"s problems to April 3, 1998, when
Marler, a pilot with about three years experience, crashed an ultra- light
airplane after a gust of wind stalled the engine.

The impact crushed Marler"s legs and broke his back. Afterward, he needed a
dozen surgeries. Bone and skin grafts were only slightly successful,
causing nearly unbearable pain to the once athletic former Marine, Anderson
said.

Marler coped with the pain by taking OxyContin, a powerful prescription
painkiller, Anderson said. However, he became hooked on the drug that would
cause him wild mood swings. The pain also made it nearly impossible for
Marler to continue his career as a contractor, Anderson said.

Court records show that Child Support Service was seeking $54,000 in child
payments from Marler. He was also scheduled for trial in November on a DUI
charge stemming from an incident in May.

But before the plane crash, Marler was a kind man who "always prayed for
everybody," his mother said. He frequently stopped to help people on the
side of the road.

The father of a 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, Marler spent four
months as a U.S. Marine in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.