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Lawmaker renews calls to increase protection for victims of domestic violence

PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania lawmakers are looking to improve domestic violence laws in the wake Wednesday’s shooting at a magistrate’s office.

Patrick Dowdell was set to appear at a hearing related to an assault in which he choked his wife at 1 p.m., but instead he entered the building and began shooting.

“We have to do so much more, not just to protect victims of domestic violence, but to prevent people from becoming victims,” Senator Camera Bartolotta told Channel 11.

Police say Dowdell’s wife taken a protection order out against him, but Bartolotta said that the current laws on the book don’t go far enough to protect victims of domestic violence.

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“We have got to do a risk assessment on a lot of these people who are arrested for alleged violent behavior, some have a history of it,” she said.

Bartolotta created new legislation after the death of Tierne Ewing in Washington County in 2016. She was killed by her estranged husband, Kevin Ewing, in a murder-suicide.

He had been arrested weeks earlier for kidnapping and assaulting her, but was still granted bail.

The legislation, called Tierne's Law went into effect this April. It allows judges to use a risk assessment tool to determine if domestic violence suspects present a danger and should be kept in jail.

“I hope that anybody who is a victim of domestic violence, reach out, reach out now, protect yourself, protect your children,” Bartolotta said.

This year, lawmakers in Harrisburg have also been considering a new law that would force PFA defendants to turn over their guns to police instead of relatives. It would also require those convicted of domestic violence to turn over their guns within 24 hours, rather than the 60 days currently mandated.

 

Cox Media Group

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