Key Takeaways
- Dawn Freeman, 44, of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, is jailed on criminal homicide charges after police say she shot her husband Bradley Freeman, 40, during an argument.
- Police say Freeman picked up Bradley's 9mm handgun from the living room coffee table and pointed it at him to show him a lesson about leaving it out.
- Bradley Freeman was found dead in the living room with a single gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead by Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees.
- After the shooting, police say Freeman threw the gun across the room and called 911, and one of her sons performed CPR on his father.
- Freeman faces felony charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment, with a preliminary hearing set for October 22.
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ADAMS TOWNSHIP, PA — A 44-year-old Cambria County woman is jailed on a criminal homicide charge after Pennsylvania State Police say she picked up her husband’s 9mm handgun during an argument about him leaving it out where their children could reach it, pointed it at him, and pulled the trigger.
Investigators say Dawn Freeman admitted shooting her husband, Bradley Freeman, 40, inside their home, according to a criminal affidavit. He was found dead in the living room with a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Police say Freeman told them she had begged her husband countless times to stop leaving the pistol out in the open, and that she was worried about the safety of her two children and constantly afraid something bad would happen, according to a televised report from the scene on the 300 block of Mine 42 Road. That report places the shooting just before 4:30 on the afternoon of October 10.
She was right about the hazard. A loaded handgun sitting unsecured in a house with kids in it is exactly the setup that gets children killed, and every argument she says she made for months was the correct argument.
Police say she noticed the gun sitting on the living room coffee table and told her husband to move it somewhere safe. He refused. Police say that made her angry. She picked the gun up. She pointed it at him to show him a lesson, police say, and she pulled the trigger. The round struck him in the chest.
Maybe she believed it was empty. Nothing in the account police have given answers that, and it would not have changed the outcome. The rules are written the way they are because people are routinely, confidently wrong about whether a gun is loaded. Every firearm is treated as loaded. The muzzle never covers anything you are not willing to destroy. Those two rules exist for exactly this moment, and they do not bend for the person who is certain. A gun is not a prop in an argument, it is not a point you are making, and it is never a teaching tool. Being right about the unsecured pistol on the coffee table does not survive picking it up.
After her husband fell, police say Freeman threw the gun across the room and called 911. One of her sons performed CPR on his father until officers arrived, according to the broadcast report. Bradley Freeman was pronounced dead by Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees.
Freeman is jailed on felony charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment, with a preliminary hearing set for October 22. Those charges are allegations, she has not been convicted, and the account of what happened in that living room comes from investigators describing what they say she told them. Prosecutors, and eventually a court, will decide what the evidence supports.
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The broadcast report noted that hundreds of people commented on the station’s coverage, many of them expressing support for Freeman. A commenter identifying herself as Freeman’s sister wrote that anyone who knows her sister knows she would never hurt anyone intentionally, and asked for prayers. Another commenter said the sons involved were hers and that they are traumatized but doing the best they can. The station said both declined to provide further information. Neither commenter’s identity has been independently confirmed.
Two children watched this happen in their own living room, and one of them did chest compressions on his father. The fix for a gun left lying around was always the same one it has always been: carry it on your body in a holster that covers the trigger, or lock it where the kids cannot get to it. That argument was worth having every single day. It was never worth settling with the gun in hand.
