Shaler Family Shooter Was To Be Fired, Financially Strapped
SHALER TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – New details are surfacing about a man who opened fire on his family before turning the gun on himself.
Police say 52-year-old Jim Edwards grabbed two .44-caliber revolvers and attempted to kill his family at a home on Winterset Drive in Shaler Township.
He went room to room shooting his wife Charlene, his 21-year-old son Jim, and his 19-year-old daughter Laurin. His wife and son survived the shooting; however, Laurin, who just celebrated her birthday Wednesday, did not survive.
While looking into Edwards' past, the KDKA Investigators have uncovered disturbing details.
Edwards worked as an electrician at Pittsburgh International Airport.
Sources tell KDKA's Marty Griffin that Edwards was set to be fired from his job Thursday, after being placed on suspension last week.
Sources say at least three women at Edwards' work had filed sexual harassment complaints against him, one even tried to run him over after he became aggressive towards her.
Edwards had also recently fallen on hard times, and was financially strapped after making several big ticket purchases including a boat.
A good friend of Edwards' says he was not surprised to hear of the shooting.
He told Marty Griffin that Edwards was often erratic.
"I wasn't surprised at all. Jim Edwards, I just knew he was that type of person, you know," the man, who describes himself as a 15-year friend of Edwards', said.
He describes Edwards as a ticking bomb.
"All these guys with these guns, they think they're going to kill a criminal. I told him, 'You're going to end up shooting your wife or your children.' He just laughed at me," the friend said.
Some neighbors also said there were harassment problems between Edwards and a few people on the street.
"He's obviously the best source of information for that. And without him to tell us, we may never know exactly. We didn't find any manuscripts or anything like that," Allegheny County Police Lt. Schurman said.
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