Wife of Masontown shooter filed for protection from abuse order before shooting
On Aug. 24, Crystal Dowdell told her husband Patrick she wanted a divorce.
In response, he locked the door to their home and twisted her arm until she dropped her phone. He told her she wasn鈥檛 going to dial 911, she wrote in a protection-from-abuse (PFA) petition she filed Aug. 27 in Fayette County Court.
鈥淗e grabbed me up tight next to him,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淗e had a gun in his hand and told me there would be no divorce.鈥�
On Wednesday, state police said Patrick Dowdell, 61, went into the lobby of Magisterial District Judge Daniel Shimshock蘑菇视频 Masontown office. Police said he was armed with a gun, and shot four people, including his 39-year-old wife and R. Scott Miller, a Masontown police sergeant who tried to stop him. A German Township police officer fatally shot Patrick Dowdell, ending what officials said could have been a serious tragedy as Shimshock was holding hearings and dozens of people were inside.
All four victims are expected to survive, and police have not yet identified the other two people who were shot.
Patrick Dowdell, who lived in Masontown, was expected at Shimshock蘑菇视频 office Wednesday for a preliminary hearing on criminal charges that he鈥檇 assaulted his wife 鈥� using a belt to choke her Aug. 25 when she again discussed divorcing him, according to court paperwork in the case. Police also alleged he threatened to kill her, and anyone else he had to.
Two days after the assault, Crystal Dowdell applied for and was granted a temporary PFA. A judge granted a permanent order on Sept. 10 that barred Patrick Dowdell from their home and prohibited him from having any contact with his wife for one year.
The petition indicated that before her husband assaulted her Aug. 25, he called her repeatedly. She ignored his calls, and when she arrived home, Patrick Dowdell accused her of blocking his number before taking off his belt, wrapping it around her neck and using it to choke her, according to the petition.
Crystal Dowdell indicated that her husband, whom police said Thursday did not have a criminal record, had both the gun he used to threaten her Aug. 24 and additional firearms in the their Poplar Street home.