A 28-year-old Cook Township man is being held without bail after Pennsylvania State Police say he shot and stabbed his father, who was found dead near a neighbor's garage on a secluded dead-end lane between Youngstown and Stahlstown. Cody Alan Lawrence has been charged with homicide in the death of his father, 59-year-old Edward Lawrence Jr., following a violent confrontation at the family's home Saturday evening.
State police were dispatched to Lawrences Lane around 7:40 to 7:45 p.m. on August 15, according to court papers described by TribLIVE. The lane is described in those filings as a short, secluded dead-end road off a rural route in Cook Township, a sparsely populated municipality in eastern Westmoreland County near Laurel Ridge, according to Westmoreland County government records.
Court filings indicate that after being shot and stabbed inside the residence, Edward Lawrence Jr. shouted that he had been shot and ran toward a neighbor's property, where troopers later found him dead in or near the garage, as reported by CBS News Pittsburgh. Initial emergency calls had reported a shooting near a garage on the lane.
Wounds All to the Victim's Back
Cody Lawrence told police he intervened in an ongoing argument between his mother and his father, and that he and his father struggled over a firearm after Cody said his father was reaching for a gun in his waistband. Per the same police account, Cody said his father may have been stabbed during the struggle and that the gun went off in the process.
But the physical evidence complicates that account. Edward Lawrence Jr. suffered one gunshot wound and two stab wounds, and court papers state all three wounds were to his back, according to the CBS News Pittsburgh report. Troopers recovered a concealed pistol near the front entrance, a folding pocketknife nearby, and a pocketknife also fell out of Cody Lawrence's sweatshirt, per the same account.
No Injuries on Suspect, No Sign of Danger to Mother
Court papers identify the victim's wife as Tammy Lawrence, who told investigators she had been bickering with her husband throughout the day before hearing a loud noise. State police noted that neither Tammy nor Cody Lawrence had any physical injuries, and found no physical evidence that Cody Lawrence had been involved in a fight, nor any evidence that Tammy was in immediate danger at the time of the shooting.
In an affidavit of probable cause filed August 17, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Philip Dern wrote that investigators found no plausible explanation of self-defense or defense of another person that could reasonably support the use of deadly force in the incident, per the TribLIVE report.
Arraignment and What Comes Next
Cody Lawrence was arraigned Sunday morning before District Judge Kelly Hammers and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on August 28 before District Judge Allison Thiel in Ligonier, the same report states. Because criminal homicide carries a potential life sentence, Pennsylvania's constitution categorically bars pretrial release on bail for such charges, a mandate affirmed by state Supreme Court precedent following a 1998 voter-approved amendment, according to a Dickinson Law Review analysis.
As a result, Lawrence was remanded without bond to the Westmoreland County Prison in Hempfield Township following his Sunday arraignment, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. As of Monday, the Westmoreland County Coroner's Office reported that the official cause and manner of Edward Lawrence Jr.’s death remained pending autopsy results, the outlet's report noted.
The preliminary hearing set for August 28 will determine whether prosecutors have established probable cause to send the case to the Court of Common Pleas. Until then, the central question in the case remains unresolved: whether the back wounds found on Edward Lawrence Jr. can be reconciled with his son's account of a face-to-face struggle over a gun.
