Crime & Safety

State Trooper Shoots, Kills Pregnant Wife

Doctors were unable to save the woman's baby.

A pregnant woman was accidentally shot and killed Friday by her husband, a Pennsylvania State Trooper who was cleaning his gun.

The woman, whom The Philadelphia Inquirer has identified as JoAnne Miller, was about 22 weeks pregnant when she was shot Friday afternoon at her home on the 3000 block of Stoney Creek Road in East Norriton Township, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said.

The officer, Trooper Joseph Miller, was cleaning his gun and did not realize it was loaded, police told the Inquirer. The gun apparently was not his service weapon.

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JoAnne Miller was transported to Mercy Suburban Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the District Attorney’s Office said. Doctors performed an emergency cesarean section but were unable to save her baby, the Inquirer said. 

The couple's two young children were home when the shooting occurred, the Inquirer said.

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Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and East Norriton Township Police Chief Karyl Kates have opened a joint investigation into the shooting.


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