Woman turns self in to face charges in Erie shooting after she leaves gun permit at scene
Essence Magee, a 23-year-old Erie resident, turned herself into Erie police on charges that she shot another woman in the back on Saturday at about around 2 a.m. in a parking lot near Lampe Campground.
But identifying Magee as a suspect likely would not have been difficult even if she had not shown up at the police station on her own.
When officers responded to the scene of the shooting — a parking lot off the Port Access Road, which leads to the Lampe Campground, near Lampe Marina, by the channel that connects Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie — they found, scattered in the grass, Magee's permit to carry a concealed handgun, a magazine for a pistol, a number of cell phones, cosmetics and "9 mm rounds and a single spent 9 mm casing directly across from Magee's carry permit," according to the criminal complaint.
The police said the magazine was for a Taurus handgun.
The officers drove back to the police station and ran a weapons check on Magee, according to the complaint. They found one firearm registered to her — a Taurus brand 9 mm that she bought on April 28.
Police did not have to investigate much more.
Magee was standing at the front doors of the police station.
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"I'm here to turn myself in," she said, according to the criminal complaint.
She reached into the front pocket of her hooded sweatshirt and gave a detective a Taurus 9 mm handgun.
"The firearm was unloaded and was missing a magazine," according to the complaint.
Trip to hospital also provides clues in shooting
Police charged Magee with five counts. They are aggravated assault as a first-degree felony, related to causing injury with "extreme indifference to the value of human life"; aggravated assault as a second-degree felony, related to use of a deadly weapon; possession of a weapon as a first-degree misdemeanor; recklessly endangering another person as second-degree misdemeanor; and disorderly conduct as a third-degree misdemeanor.
Magee is free after a posting $75,000 bond through a bondsman, according to court records. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 12 before Erie 1st Ward District Judge Sue Mack.
The police list no motive for the shooting in the criminal complaint. According to complaint's affidavit of probable cause, police at about 2 a.m. on Saturday received a report of a shooting, and learned that two people had driven the victim, a woman, to UPMC Hamot with a gunshot wound to the lower right back. Police drove to Hamot.
The two people who had driven the victim to the hospital told police that they had heard two women fighting in the parking lot off Port Access Road, and then heard a single gunshot, according to the affidavit. The Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority owns the lot and Lampe Campground and Lampe Marina.
The two people found the victim lying in the grass in the parking lot, according to the affidavit. The two called 911 while they drove the victim to Hamot.
The police also drove to the parking lot. They found the gun permit, the gun magazine, the 9 mm rounds and the other items.
Magee showed up at the police station a short time later.
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie woman turns self in after leaving gun permit at shooting scene
