Man charged in Lowery stabbing
A spilled drink on the living room floor of a Fayette City home allegedly started an altercation that left a Uniontown attorney suffering from multiple stab wounds. As a result of the incident, Trooper Joseph W. Panepinto said Samuel Frederick Clark, 30, of Pittsburgh was charged Friday before Magisterial District Judge Jesse J. Cramer with aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person for allegedly stabbing John H. Lowery III, who also is member of the Frazier School Board.
Panepinto said the incident occurred around 3 a.m. Oct. 23 inside Lowery’s home at 112 Washington Drive.
Panepinto said that, according to Lowery, he and four other friends, including Clark, had returned to his home from a Uniontown bar when Clark attacked him in the kitchen of the home “for no reason.”
Lowery told police that Clark stabbed him with a kitchen knife twice in the back and once in the chest before being forced from Lowery’s home by another man at his home, William Best Jr., Panepinto said.
Lowery told investigators that he struck Clark in the head with a socket wrench as he was leaving his home, Panepinto said.
While Lowery told police that the stabbing was unprovoked, statements to police from Best, no address available, said the altercation began over a spilled alcoholic beverage, Panepinto said.
Best told investigators that the fight started in the living room and that Lowery used a cell phone to strike Clark in the head during the argument.
Panepinto said Best told police that he was able to separate the men and that Lowery eventually went into the kitchen.
He then told police that he heard Lowery screaming that he had been stabbed, and went to the kitchen and found Lowery bleeding and saw Clark holding a knife, Panepinto said.
Panepinto said that as Best attempted to remove Clark from the home, Lowery struck Clark with a socket wrench.
Panepinto said the chest wound punctured Lowery’s left lung.
After being stabbed, Lowery was taken to Monongahela Valley Hospital in Carroll Township and then transferred to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh.
Lowery, 39, has been released from the hospital and is recuperating from his injuries.
Clark suffered minor injuries, Panepinto said.
Lowery has practiced law in Uniontown for 13 years and has served with the Fayette County district attorney’s office. No charges have been filed against him.