Thursday, December 03, 2009
By Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A man shot his estranged wife and killed her male companion today during a domestic dispute that scalated to gunfire in the parking lot of a Beaver County shopping center, police said.
Greg Baker, 55, surrendered to New Sewickley police shortly after the 3:20 p.m. shootings at the East Rochester Shopping Plaza. He was charged with homicide, aggravated assault, criminal intent and reckless endangerment in the shootings of his wife, Linda, and a man whom Rochester police described as a companion.
Police were waiting to notify the man's next of kin before releasing his name. Mrs. Baker, 48, was in critical condition at UMPC Presbyterian with a gunshot wound near the right shoulder.
Police recovered five shell casings at the scene, though it was unknown how many times the man was shot, Rochester Sgt. Charles Zarillo said.
He called the shooting a domestic dispute, and said it happened when Mr. Baker was driving through the shopping plaza and spotted his estranged wife with her male companion.
Paramedics arrived to find Mrs. Baker unconscious. After they revived her with CPR, she told police she had been shot by her estranged husband, Sgt. Zarillo said.
Witnesses told police the gunman initially shot the two victims, returned to his vehicle, then came back and fired more shots. They said the shooting happened near the Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe.
Officers began searching for Mr. Baker, who the sergeant said "walked right into the police station," about 25 minutes after the shooting.
Mr. Baker used a 40-caliber handgun, which he was licensed to carry, in the shooting, police said. They found the weapon in Mr. Baker's white Ford station wagon, Sgt. Zarillo said. Mr. Baker, of New Sewickley, was taken to Rochester police headquarters after he surrendered.
His lawyer, Myron Sainovich of Beaver, was with him there, but declined to comment.
Outside the Rochester police department last night, a woman who said she knew Mrs. Baker said Mr. Baker used to own the Circus car wash on Route 65.
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