State Trooper, Wife Killed In Murder-Suicide Inside Pennsylvania Supermarket

A state trooper and his wife were killed Thursday when the man opened fire inside a central Pennsylvania supermarket, shooting his wife to death before turning the gun on himself.

Police said Mark R. Miscavish was a 15-year veteran of the Pennsylvania State Police who retired in 2011. He is accused of entering the County Market in Philipsburgh with a shotgun and opening fire on his estranged wife.

The wife, Traci A. Miscavish, had filed for divorce just days before, not long after her husband was charged with beating her. The trooper was arrested back in January when Traci returned to the home she once shared with Mark to retrieve some of her belongings.

Traci said she found her husband abusing prescription drugs and wrestled her to the ground when she tried to take them away. He was then accused of pinning her to the ground and trying to bind her with duct tape.

When Traci escaped the home, Mark pulled a gun and threatened to kill her, but a passer-by was able to stop the assault.

The Centre County District Attorney, Stacy Parks Miller, said that Traci Miscavish actually predicted that her state trooper husband would kill her.

‘‘She said, ‘The next time I see him is going to be at the end of a gun,” ‘ Parks Miller told The Associated Press. ‘‘We were very concerned when he got out and we’re just devastated now.”

Even after the state trooper and his wife were killed in the murder-suicide, Traci’s family refused to point fingers, saying that Mark was troubled and in need of help.

‘‘He wasn’t in his right mind,” said Gina March, Traci’s sister. ‘‘I don’t believe he’s at fault, I believe he needed help. … And nobody was there to help him, not the judge, not the cops, not our system.”

After the state trooper and his wife were killed in the supermarket murder-suicide, it was revealed that Traci was granted a protection-from-abuse order against her husband.