Man accused of shooting his mother inside Beaver County home

A man is facing attempted homicide charges after police said he shot his mother inside a home in Brighton Township on Monday morning. 

Thirty-eight-year-old Daniel Kernich is accused of shooting his mom at a house on Fox Water Trail around 5 a.m., the Brighton Township Police Department said.

The woman was flown to a hospital in stable condition with a single gunshot wound to her chest, police said.

Kernich was arrested on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person and discharging a firearm into an occupied structure. 

Twelve-year-old neighbor Knox Racioppo said woke up to the sound of cries from a woman screaming for help on Monday.

"'Help me, help me, I need help,'" Racioppo recalled. "It was scary, because we didn't know what was going on."

He ran to tell his parents, who raced outside with his uncle Matthew Serbati, and found a woman bleeding from a gunshot by their neighbor's doorstep.

"We thought we might be able to help her, but it was just a little out of our hands," Serbati said. "I don't know how long she was out there, or how much longer she could have been out there, so I'm glad he said something."

Not knowing where the shooter was, they ran back home and called 911.

Annamarie Mellet said the woman who was shot doesn't live at the home. Neighbors told KDKA that they are grateful Kernich's children weren't visiting at the time. 

"I saw the forensics activities going on, the brown paper bags coming out of the house," Mellet said. "They were doing their due diligence."

Police said they're investigating what led up to the shooting. Kernich and his mom were the only ones inside the home at the time, police said. 

Kernich is at the Beaver County Jail awaiting arraignment.