Wife Details Moments That Led To Fayette Co. Standoff
UNIONTOWN (KDKA) -A domestic dispute, which led to a standoff in Fayette County ended peacefully Monday morning.
However, for a mother and her two children inside the home, the ordeal was frightening as a husband lost his temper.
Tracy Baker is a mom and wife who has seen hell at home.
"It's been awful, mind going a million miles an hour, just don't know what to think half the time, just worried. Every emotion you could feel, I'm going through," Baker said.
Baker said her husband exploded in anger inside their Oglevee Road home in Dunbar Township on April 8.
"Over the weekend, I believe on Saturday, my husband went into my daughter's bedroom and he wasn't real happy with what he saw. Her room was messy. So, he removed her television and a few other things, started throwing things around," Baker said.
Baker had gone to pick up her son and daughter from their biological father. When they returned home, her daughter went into her room and began to pack some of her things and said she was going to call her biological father to come get her.
"He just snapped, came in behind her, grabbed her by her hair, threw her on the bed and that's when he started punching her on the right side of her face," Baker said.
Watching her 15-year-old daughter getting repeatedly punched, Baker moved in, pulling 39-year-old Thomas Baker Jr. off the girl.
"As soon as I pulled him off her, he turned around then he punched me," Baker said.
The teen ran into the bathroom and locked it. Thomas Baker, who's a state prison guard, wasn't done.
According to Tracy Baker, the girl had a pet rabbit in her bedroom.
"We're assuming that he either strangled it, snapped its neck, I don't know," Baker said. "The rabbit was no longer alive."
Thomas Baker refused to calm down and grabbed a gun inside the home.
"After all that scuffle, he went in our bedroom got the 12-gauge shotgun, started to load it and on his way down to the basement, where we spend most of our time, he said 'I'm not leaving here without a fight,'" Tracy Baker said.
Tracy, her daughter and her 9-year-old son escaped. A SWAT team convinced Thomas Baker to come out after a standoff that lasted for several hours.
He's now in the Fayette County Jail on $100,000 dollars cash bond and facing assault charges.
Tracy was in Uniontown on Wednesday to get a PFA against her husband.
In fact, Thomas Baker was charged with assaulting Tracy last year as well as DUI.
KDKA-TV's Ross Guidotti: Is it worth a second chance once you've been hit?
Baker: Not from what I've experienced.
However, it's easier said than done. Tracy said with the physical insecurity comes financial security. It's a terrible trade-off, but she said any woman in her position must get out.
Baker: They need to do what they got to do to stay safe.
Guidotti: That might include leaving.
Baker: Absolutely, especially when a child is hurt in the midst of things and an animal killed. That's just wrong. No one deserves to be beat.
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