By Alex Wiederspiel
WVMetroNews.com
UNIONTOWN, Pa. — Four people, including a police officer, were injured in a shooting at a courthouse in Fayette County, Pa., Wednesday afternoon.
Police engaged the gunman, resulting in one injury to Masontown Police Sgt. R. Scott Miller. The gunman was killed at the scene, and his identification is pending notification of next of kin.
Investigators confirmed the gunman was expected to appear in District Judge Daniel Shimshock’s courtroom Wednesday in regards to a domestic violence case, but neither the judge nor his staff were injured in the shooting.
Three of those injured — two men and one woman — were transported to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. The officer was taken to a Uniontown hospital.
There were about 60 people in the courtroom at the time of the incident.
“It’s becoming far too common today,” said Pennsylvania State Trooper Robert Broadwater. “It’s getting out of hand. We’re going to hopefully get control of it.”
Broadwater said this was the second incident in 2018, referring to a foiled plot of a mass shooting at Uniontown High School in February.
“I want to make it clear — without the rapid response of these brave officers to this shooting, more individuals would have been shot,” Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Steve Dowlin said.
The gunman is confirmed to have been a man charged with strangulation, aggravated assault, simple assault and making terrorist threats.
“This was a result of a domestic matter that occurred a few weeks ago,” District Attorney Richard Bower said.
Bower further confirmed neither the judge nor his staff were a target. Dowlin and others did describe the investigation as “in the infancy stages.”
“Today, there are four heroes,” Bower said, describing the officers involved in stopping the gunman — the injured Sgt. Miller, German Township Police Chief Dave Hromada, and two other officers, including the officer who fired the shots that killed the gunman.
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