Police: Wife accused in shooting of county commissioner

SOUTH UNION TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The wife of a western Pennsylvania county commissioner is accused of shooting her husband in the neck at their home, and a district attorney said it was no accident.

Forty-seven-year-old Deanna Vicites on Sunday was charged with attempted homicide and related offenses in the shooting of Vincent Vicites.

Police were called to the couple’s home shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday after a neighbor heard the commissioner screaming to “call 911.”

District Attorney Richard Bower said Vincent Vicites was flown to a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, and is in stable condition.

According to a criminal complaint, investigators found Deanna Vicites on the ground and moved her to a police car. She claimed she had been abused by her husband for a long time and the shooting was in self-defense because he was choking her.

However, Deanna Vicites changed her story when she got to the hospital, according to police. She said she and her husband had been drinking and that she was depressed and suicidal.

The complaint said Deanna Vicites told police that she put the gun to her head to shoot herself and her husband reached up and grabbed the gun to pull it away from her head. The gun went off.

Meanwhile, Vincent Vicites’ side of the story included that he and his wife had gotten into an argument and were drinking. But, according to the criminal complaint, he claimed that his wife was taking the gun to the bedroom, as they do every night, when she passed by his chair as he was half asleep and shot him. He claimed it was an accident, but couldn’t explain how.

Investigators said that with a bullet lodged in his throat, he was unable to talk and wrote his side of the story on a piece of paper.

Bower said evidence shows Deanna Vicites tried to kill her husband.

No attorney was listed for her in online court documents. She remains in jail.

Vincent Vicites, a Democrat from Uniontown, served four terms as a Fayette County commissioner from 1996 to 2011. He ran again for the board last year and won a seat in November.

Associated Press