Police believe Democratic delegate for Hillary Clinton, Deanna Vicites, attempted to murder her husband over the weekend with a .38-caliber revolver.
Fayette County commissioner Vincent Vicites was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot to his neck Sunday after police responded to multiple 911 calls from the couple’s Pennsylvania home.
Vincent Vicites, 55, initially called dispatchers to report he’d been shot, and a man who lives in the home’s basement also called authorities when the husband called out for help shortly before the blast, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
State troopers said they found Deanna Vicites, 47, balled up outside the front door of the home, and the gun in the front lawn when they arrived, and Vincent Vicites was inside with a wound below his chin. Troopers interviewed both husband and wife multiple times and both of their stories changed over time, according to the news site.
Both confirmed that the incident occurred after a long day of drinking. The husband initially said his wife shot him while he was half asleep in a chair in the living room, then later said the shooting was accidental.
“He confirmed that it was his wife Deanna that shot him,” according to a police report cited by the Post-Gazette.
“One minute he was saying he was sleeping when he was shot. The next minute he said it was an accident,” it said. “He could not explain how it was an accident.”
The Associated Press confirmed with the Democratic Party that Deanna Vicites is a Hillary Clinton delegate. The party accepted her resignation Tuesday and plans to appoint an at-large alternate.
Deanna Vicites gave police two different versions of events, as well.
She initially told troopers she acted in self-defense after years of abuse by her husband, then later said she drank “too much” alcohol and was attempting to kill herself in her bedroom and her husband was shot when he tried to intervene.
“She said the gun went off and struck him,” troopers wrote in the report. “She said she was not sure how he was hit. She said she wanted to kill herself, not shoot him.”
After reviewing the evidence, Fayetteville County District Attorney Richard Bower did not buy the woman’s stories.
“This is absolutely not an accident,” he said Monday, according to the Post-Gazette. “This is an intentional, reckless act.”
Deanna Vicites stands accused of attempted homicide and other crimes and is currently behind bars.
Vincent Vicites underwent surgery and is recovering in a West Virginia hospital, according to the AP.
“He has had two surgeries and remains in stable condition. However, this does not mean that Mr. Vicites is out of the woods in regard to his injuries. … It’s our understanding that the bullet is still lodged in his throat area,” Bower told WTAE.
The Federalist reports Deanna Vicites was convicted in 2002 of conspiracy to commit burglary.
The site compared the Clinton delegate’s plight with the recent media frenzy surrounding Donald Trump delegate and New Hampshire state representative Al Baldasaro’s comments about the Democratic presidential candidate.
“But the media won’t talk about the fact that a pledged delegate for Hillary Clinton literally shot someone earlier this week. Instead, they’re obsessing over a GOP delegate who hyperbolically suggested that Clinton ‘should be put in a firing line and shot for treason’ for her role in the death of four Americans killed in Benghazi after she ignored multiple requests for increased security in Libya,” the Federalist reports.
“After all, why focus any attention on a pledged Hillary Clinton delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention who literally tried to shoot someone in the face over the weekend when you can focus on hyperbole from a Trump delegate who didn’t shoot anyone?”
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