Inset: Darrell Long (Lebanon County District Attorney's Office). Background: The area near where Long tried to kill his ex-wife in North Lebanon Township, Pa. (Google Maps).
A Pennsylvania man is facing decades behind bars for shooting and brutally beating his ex-wife after she filed for child support.
On Wednesday, Darrell Long, 63, was found guilty by a jury of his peers in Lebanon County on one count each of attempted homicide, burglary and harassment, as well as two separate counts of aggravated assault over the March 2025 attack on 57-year-old Dawn Long.
The violence occurred on March 25, 2025, at the victim's residence on North 7th Street in North Lebanon Township — a small municipality located roughly 15 miles northeast of Hershey.
On the day in question, Darrell Long broke into his ex-wife's house while she was taking a nap and hit her in the face with a .22-caliber firearm before shooting her twice in the left leg, prosecutors said.
By then, Dawn Long began to fight back.
"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."
With her right arm, the woman continued to fight, the district attorney said. This time, Dawn Long lunged forward and grabbed hold of her ex-husband, trying to put him in a headlock. The grip ultimately sent Darrell Long to the ground on the opposite side of the living room.
After regaining his composure, the gun jammed and the assailant started exclaiming about the problem, the prosecutor noted.
"He's beating and hitting at the gun, yelling at it, saying that it jammed," Graf went on. "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."
At that point, the woman had been shot in — and was bleeding from — three limbs, so she gave up the fight and dragged herself across the floor to try to stave off her ex by sheltering in the bedroom.
While she was on the way to the bedroom, Darrell Long shot his wife in the right leg, the prosecutor said. After the final bullet hit its mark, the woman smashed her Apple Watch until it made a 911 call.
Then, Darrell Long fled the scene of the crime as he realized that both law enforcement and the couple's son were on the way.
"The Defendant committed a planned, extremely violent attempt on the victim's life," Graf said in a statement obtained by Harrisburg-based ABC affiliate WHTM after the verdict. "He shot his ex-wife five (5) times – it is clear he wanted her to die, but he failed."
The woman was rushed to a nearby hospital and had to undergo four surgeries due to the extensive damage done, the prosecutor noted. One of the five bullets is still lodged in her femur, Graf added.
During the two-day trial, the jury was made privy to a bevy of evidence that detailed the defendant's planned intent to kill his ex.
Among the evidence shown were a series of 23 text messages Darrell Long sent to his son threatening and making what Graf termed "hateful and nasty" comments about Dawn Long. Prosecutors said some messages were intended for the woman herself after she blocked the man's phone number.
"I have nothing you still control everything now life for a life," the final message — sent 18 minutes after the 911 call was made — read, in part, according to an initial press release after the man's arrest.
Since the attack, Darrell Long has shown no remorse or accountability, the prosecutor said.
"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 magazine. "[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."
The defendant is currently slated to be sentenced on Dec. 9.
The victim has since largely recovered, the prosecutor said.
"Her left hand will always be different," Graf explained. "Her left leg will always be different. And she has pain."