A Pennsylvania man could spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury convicted him of shooting and beating his ex-wife following a child support dispute.
On Wednesday, a Lebanon County jury found Darrell Long, 63, guilty of attempted homicide, burglary, harassment and two counts of aggravated assault stemming from the March 2025 attack on 57-year-old Dawn Long, his ex-wife.
The assault took place on March 25, 2025, at the victim’s home on North 7th Street in North Lebanon Township, a small municipality roughly 15 miles northeast of Hershey.
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A brutal, drawn-out attack
Prosecutors said Darrell Long broke into his ex-wife’s house while she was napping, struck her in the face with a .22-caliber handgun, then shot her twice in the left leg.
Dawn Long fought back almost immediately.
“She kind of kicks him backwards, gets to her feet, and she reaches for the gun,” Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf told People magazine. “He now has it pointed at her face. And she reaches up with her left hand and he fires. Thankfully, he hits her hand and doesn’t shoot her in the head, but it obliterates her left index finger.”
She kept fighting with her right arm, according to the district attorney, eventually lunging at her ex-husband and getting him into a headlock, a move that sent him tumbling to the floor across the room.
Once he got back up, the gun jammed, and the attacker reportedly began yelling and slamming it in frustration.
“He’s beating and hitting at the gun, yelling at it, saying that it jammed,” Graf said. “So, Dawn charges him to finally get it and that’s when he shoots her the fourth time in the right arm and that bullet lodges in her forearm.”
By that point she had been shot in three limbs and was bleeding heavily, so she abandoned the fight and crawled toward the bedroom, hoping to get away from him. As she moved, Darrell Long shot her once more, this time in the right leg. After the fifth shot struck her, she managed to smash her Apple Watch hard enough to trigger a 911 call.
Long then fled once he realized police and the couple’s son were on their way.
“The Defendant committed a planned, extremely violent attempt on the victim’s life,” Graf said in a statement obtained by Harrisburg ABC affiliate WHTM following the verdict. “He shot his ex-wife five (5) times – it is clear he wanted her to die, but he failed.”
Dawn Long was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent four surgeries to address the extent of her injuries, according to the prosecutor. One bullet remains lodged in her femur.
Messages hinted at premeditation
Over the two-day trial, jurors were shown a range of evidence pointing to a deliberate plan to kill, including 23 text messages Darrell Long sent to the couple’s son that Graf described as “hateful and nasty” toward Dawn. Prosecutors said some of those messages appeared meant for Dawn herself, since she had blocked his number.
“I have nothing you still control everything now life for a life,” read part of the final message, sent 18 minutes after the 911 call went out, according to a press release issued after his arrest.
Graf said Long has shown no remorse since the attack.
“The last two things that the jury heard [were] [him making] domestic violence jokes that every woman needs to be taught a lesson, that he’s a hero for doing what he did,” Graf told People. “[That] he did what 99% of men wish they could do. He’s proud of what he did. He still blames the victim for making him shoot her.”
Long is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9.
Dawn Long has largely recovered from her injuries, though lasting effects remain, according to Graf.
“Her left hand will always be different,” Graf said. “Her left leg will always be different. And she has pain.”
