Contractor accused of shooting, killing man during argument in Center Township
CENTER TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) - A contractor was arrested after police said he shot and killed a man and injured another person during an argument over a home improvement project in Center Township.
The Beaver County district attorney said Wesley Deaderick was charged with voluntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and firearms violations in the death of William Dawkins.
Willie Dawkins' mother Blanche Lowe told KDKA that her son's girlfriend called him Saturday morning and asked him to come to her house in Center Township to talk with her contractor because he didn't complete the job and wouldn't return her money. Lowe said her son didn't want to get involved but after another call by his girlfriend's mother, he agreed.
Once at his girlfriend's house in the Cedar Ridge Estates, Dawkins confronted Deaderick in the driveway, and that's when gunshots rang out, hitting Dawkins and his girlfriend. The district attorney said Deaderick chased after the couple and continued to fire as they ran.
Lowe said her son, a father of two, was shot five times: twice in the head and once in the chest, stomach and shoulder. His girlfriend was grazed by a bullet in the arm. Both were rushed to Pittsburgh hospitals, where Dawkins died the next day.
Lowe said her son didn't deserve to die over something so petty. Now she's left to raise her son's two children, ages 8 and 11.
"This is my baby's babies, so now they become my babies," she said. "They've always been my babies, I've had them for four years, so now they're mine. I'm going to raise my babies. I don't know what's next but I'm going to love on them and do the very best that I can for my babies."
The district attorney said Deaderick turned himself in on Wednesday and was arraigned. He is free on a $200,000 unsecured bond, released on electric monitoring.
Deaderick's attorney, Ken Haber, said the shooting was justifiable and charges should have never been filed.
"The threat that he faced was a deadly threat," he said. "It was both a verbal threat and a physical threat by first showing the gun and then grabbing the gun and drawing the gun."
Haber said Deaderick went to the home of Dawkins' girlfriend to give her back the money she requested. Haber said Deaderick and his co-worker tried to leave but couldn't when Dawkins showed up.
"He blocked him in," Haber said. "He immediately got verbally aggressive. The verbal aggression was one-sided."
The attorney said Deaderick felt threatened when Dawkins flashed a gun.
"The things said were very threatening essentially," Haber said. "He stated he was going to shoot my client and then showed him the gun that he had in his waistband."
"The gentleman then made additional threats, grabbed his gun," he added. "That's when my client had no choice to not only defend his life but he had a co-worker with him."
