Juvenile Grabs Gun and Kills Man Armed With Knife and Gun Who Was Assaulting Woman Inside Fayette County Home, DA Says Evidence So Far Backs Defense-of-Another Claim

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GEORGES TOWNSHIP, PA — A juvenile shot and killed a 39-year-old man who was allegedly armed with a knife and a gun and assaulting his girlfriend inside a Fayette County home Sunday afternoon, and the district attorney says the information gathered so far backs up the juvenile’s claim that he was defending her.

Pennsylvania State Police in Uniontown were called to a domestic incident involving a firearm and shots fired at a home on Walnut Hill Road at 1 p.m. on October 18. Troopers found Shaun Michael Davis on the floor inside the residence with a gunshot wound. He died on the way to Uniontown Hospital. The state police release lists the case as a criminal homicide investigation and says there is no threat to the public. Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele confirmed this week that a juvenile inside the home shot Davis multiple times, as reported by CBS Pittsburgh, and the account of what happened inside the house below comes from the DA’s statements to that outlet.

Aubele called it a domestic situation between Davis and his girlfriend. According to the DA, investigators have been told Davis was assaulting the woman inside the home. He allegedly had a knife and a gun and was threatening the people there. The juvenile grabbed another gun that was in the house. He fired. Davis was struck multiple times.

“The individual that shot Mr. Davis is claiming that he was coming to the defense of another,” Aubele said. “And the information that we have right now seems to back that up.”

A juvenile in that house did not have the luxury of waiting this out. By the DA’s account, a man with a knife and a gun was attacking a woman right in front of him and threatening everyone else inside. Defending another person against that kind of threat stands on the same footing as defending yourself. He had a gun within reach, and he used it.

None of that is settled. Aubele said his office is investigating this as potentially a domestic violence situation in which Davis was the aggressor, and that the investigation is far from over while prosecutors wait on forensic results. Davis’s manner of death was ruled a homicide the day of the shooting, Aubele said, a classification that means one person killed another and says nothing by itself about whether the killing was lawful. No charging decision has been announced, and the juvenile has not been identified.

Davis’s family is demanding answers, and their questions are aimed at the state. His sister, Tyla Davis, and the mother of his four children, Paige Kersten, told CBS Pittsburgh that the woman in the home had bailed Davis out of jail and married him just days before the shooting. They want to know how that was allowed when, according to Kersten, his bail paperwork said the two were not to be around each other. Kersten said the relationship had a history of domestic violence. “He’d be alive, and my kids would have their father,” she said. The children are 6, 5, and 4-year-old twins.

Aubele’s answer was direct. “In Pennsylvania, a no-contact order does not apply to a victim,” he said. “A victim has no obligation to stay away from a defendant. That may not seem right, and I think it’s certainly in some situations problematic, especially if a victim is trying to contact the defendant. But it’s not illegal. It is not a crime as to her.”

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There is nothing clean about this one. Four children lost their father. A woman who, according to Davis’s family, posted his bail and married him days earlier was, by the DA’s account, being assaulted by him on Sunday. And a juvenile had to pick up a gun and take a life. But how Davis got out of jail is a separate question from what happened once he was inside that house with a knife and a gun. On what the DA has described, the juvenile stepped in to stop an armed man who was attacking a woman, and the prosecutor says the information so far supports that.

The state police investigation remains open, and Aubele’s office is waiting on forensic evidence before deciding whether anyone will be charged.

Read the original story: Juvenile Grabs Gun and Kills Man Armed With Knife and Gun Who Was Assaulting Woman Inside Fayette County Home, DA Says Evidence So Far Backs Defense-of-Another Claim