John Andrew Bowes, a 27-year-old male from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, died on February 15, 1990, after a gunshot wound to the head inside an apartment on West Chester Pike. The death was reported as a gun violence fatality, and the surviving newspaper account of the case described Bowes as having been found on the living room floor after police were sent to check on him.
The case began to unfold when Paul McKenna, also 27, of the 7200 block of West Chester Pike in Upper Darby, was being
treated at Delaware County Memorial Hospital for facial injuries from an assault. While there, he asked police to check on his roommate or friend. McKenna reportedly told officers that they should go back and check on his “buddy,” saying the man could be hurt. McKenna gave officers the keys to his apartment, and Patrolman Paul Stromberg and Sgt. Harry Davis went to the residence. Inside, they found Bowes dead on the floor. He was pronounced dead at about 7:15 p.m. Monday from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Police found a cocked. 357 Magnum near Bowes’ left hand, with three spent rounds and three live bullets. What at first had the shape of a violent and confusing apartment shooting quickly became a homicide investigation. McKenna was arrested at his residence shortly before midnight Wednesday and charged in connection with Bowes’ death. The charges reported at the time included criminal homicide, murder, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of instruments of crime. He was arraigned and committed to Delaware County Prison because the homicide charge was nonbailable.
Investigators were presented with sharply conflicting versions of what happened inside the apartment. According to court documents described in the newspaper account, McKenna told police that Bowes had tried to strangle him and had threatened him with a gun. In that account, McKenna claimed he wrestled with Bowes, managed to twist the gun around, and that the weapon discharged while Bowes’ finger was on the trigger, causing Bowes to shoot himself in the head.
An eyewitness account from Dawn Bradley, 23, gave police a very different picture. Bradley reportedly told investigators that McKenna and Bowes had been arguing, and that McKenna raised the gun and fired one shot at Bowes, striking him in the head. The newspaper account said McKenna claimed self-defense, but Bradley’s statement placed him as the person who fired the fatal shot. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Thursday in Upper Darby Regional Court. No additional online source located here provided a confirmed outcome of that hearing, trial, conviction, acquittal, or later disposition of the charges.
