Gunman killed after shooting 4 at magisterial district judge's office
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A man charged in connection with a domestic dispute shot four people, including a police officer, on Wednesday at a magisterial district judge’s office in western Pennsylvania.
Patrick S. Dowdell, the gunman, was at the building for a preliminary hearing on charges that included strangulation and terroristic threats, the New York Times reports. All of the people Dowdell shot had injuries that were not life-threatening, including Masontown police Sgt. R. Scott Miller, who was wounded in the hand, according to the Observer-Reporter.
Pennsylvania State Police told the Times that District Judge Daniel Shimshock, who was assigned the case and has an office at the building south of Pittsburgh, was not targeted in the attack.
The Herald-Standard reports that Crystal Dowdell told her husband on Aug. 25 that she wanted a divorce. He then wrapped a belt around her neck, threatening to kill her and anyone else he had to. After his arrest, Patrick Dowdell was free on $10,000 bond, according to the the Times, and there was a protection order against him.
The Observer-Reporter and Herald-Standard said Crystal Dowdell was one of the people wounded.
Rich Bower, the Fayette County district attorney, tells the Herald-Standard that there were dozens of preliminary hearings scheduled before Shimshock on Wednesday and many police officers and lawyers were in the building when Dowdell started shooting.
Bower also says security at magisterial district courts and county courthouses is a concern.
“You’re never going to stop everything, but the problem is that a person can walk into any of these district judge’s courtrooms,” he said.
A woman at the courthouse tells the Herald-Standard she saw Patrick Dowdell come from the parking lot toward the building and shoot a woman through the lobby’s double doors. Then he shot a man in the arm and reloaded his weapon, she says.
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