News

Police: Woman killed husband after fight over cooking, snapped photo before calling 911

FRAZER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Allegheny County police arrested a woman after her husband was found fatally shot in a Frazer Township home.

Police and paramedics were called about 10:30 p.m. Monday to Crawford Run Road, where they found 42-year-old Dennis Drum Sr. He had been shot in the head, police said.

Police said 38-year-old Teresa Drum was taken to the county jail to await arraignment Tuesday on a charge of criminal homicide.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by Channel 11 News, Teresa Drum initially told investigators that her husband shot himself. She told paramedics that she took a photo of his body with her cellphone because she didn't know what to do, according to the complaint.

The complaint said there was no gun in the victim's hand in the photo, though there was a gun in the victim's hand when police arrived at the scene.

"Me and my husband were fighting and he just shot himself," Drum told police at the scene.

The complaint said that when Drum was questioned by police, she told them she had drunk seven beers since 5 p.m. and had gotten into a fight with her husband "over the fact that she had drank his last beer."

The complaint said Drum told police that her husband was seated on a bed, and as she stood over him, he pulled a gun from a holster and pointed it at her and she "pushed the gun away and it went off."

Once Allegheny County detectives took over the questioning, she told them she "had a buzz" and she and her husband were fighting about a casserole she had burned. Once they were in the bedroom, she reportedly said her husband pulled a gun and put "her finger on the trigger of the gun, along with his, and the gun went off."

According to the complaint, Drum told police that she took the photo and sent it to a friend, who told her to call 911. Police said 11 minutes passed before she dialed 911 for help, and police documents state she "took a shower to rinse off" and "at no time after the shooting did she render aid to the victim."

When she was asked how the gun ended up in the victim's hand, Drum told investigators that she did not know, the complaint said.

The incident remains under investigation.

Stay with Channel 11 New and WPXI.com for continuing coverage.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.