Shooting suspect arraigned
MENALLEN TWP. – When Dorothy Davis heard banging outside her home in the village of Searights Monday morning, she thought it sounded like bricks being slapped together. But when she looked out her living room window, she saw a much different scenario.
“He was at the front door of the home and was just firing rounds into the door and upstairs window,” Davis said Monday afternoon, as she looked warily out her front door where pieces of yellow police tape caught in a breeze. “I called 911 and told them to get here quick.”
Davis, along with dozens of other residents in the housing complex on Searights-Herbert Road, were startled by the hail of bullets in what police are calling a domestic dispute gone bad.
Joel Michael Grooms, 19, of Uniontown was arraigned by video conference before Magisterial District Judge Robert Breakiron on charges of discharging a firearm into an occupied residence, carrying a firearm without a license, recklessly endangering another person, possession of prohibited weapons, defiant trespass, criminal mischief and possession of a small amount of marijuana Monday evening.
Police allege that Grooms fired as many as nine rounds in the morning shooting but noted that no one was injured as a result of the gunfire.
According to trooper Scott A. Krofcheck, the incident began when Grooms arrived at the home Monday around 8:45 a.m. where his girlfriend Jennifer Guesman of Menallen Township was living with three children under the age of 3.
Police said Guesman refused to let Grooms into the home.
Krofcheck said Grooms became angry and used a handgun to fire several rounds into the door around the knob trying to gain access to the home. Krofcheck said Grooms then fired additional shots into the upstairs of the residence and at least one shot into the neighbor’s home.
“He unloaded at least nine rounds into the houses,” Paul Randolph III said. “He fired all the bullets in the gun and then went back and reloaded and started firing some more.”
Randolph said he lives at 423 Village of Searights with Davis.
Davis said she is convinced Grooms fired at her house because he saw her on the phone through the living room window and was concerned she was calling 911.
“He was trying to scare me off the phone,” Davis said.
Krofcheck said he did not know why Grooms wanted in the residence and was not aware of what might have started the fight between Grooms and Guesman.
Grooms was taken into custody without incident following the shooting.
Neighbors said they were shocked by the shooting and said they had not noticed any problems between the couple.
“He is actually a pretty nice guy,” Randolph’s son, Paul Randolph IV, who also lives in the village, said. “I’ve only seen him a few times but he was always friendly and personable.”
The shooting occurred less than 40 yards from a community playground in the housing complex.
Fayette County Court records revealed that Grooms is scheduled for trial later this month on more than a dozen charges out of Redstone Township last August including aggravated assault and fleeing and eluding law enforcement.
Grooms was placed in the Fayette County Prison on $30,000 straight cash bond.
A preliminary hearing will be held before Magisterial District Judge Joseph George Jr.