"She immediately disarmed him of a pistol." (Image by Andrzej Barabasz.)

Well, policing was apparently somewhat different in the 1890s. A brief article from the June 21, 1895 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“A special from Amory, Miss., says: At Greenwood Springs, a summer resort fifteen miles from here, Bruce Flanigan, a proprietor of the hotel, called at the residence of Frank Dean. Finding Mrs. Dean alone, he insulted her so she claims. She immediately disarmed him of a pistol which he had and blew his brains out. She then secured her husband’s shot gun and levelling the muzzle at the dead man’s breast fired both barrels. Mrs. Dean has not been arrested and will probably not be.”