Police and prosecutors want to know how an man who had two protection from abuse orders issued against him got a shotgun and was able to get close enough to his ex-wife to kill her.
Kenneth Philipp shot and killed his ex-wife Violeta Isackov, 45, in the parking lot of a Feasterville, Bucks County, Pa. dress shop last month.
Police say Isackov had just left a dress shop on Bustleton Pike with her 16-year-old daughter and they were sitting in the car when her ex-husband pulled up behind them, jumped out of his car, grabbed his shotgun and opened fire killing Isackov, according to Lower Southampton Township Police.
Philipp, 50, later died during a shootout with police officers.
Isackov had two protection from abuse (or PFA) orders against Philipp after earlier abuse. Soon after the deadly shootings prosecutors asked how Philipp was able to get a hold of a gun considering he was released from jail just weeks earlier.
Philipp was released from jail April 2 after being locked up in November for assaulting Isackov with a knife, police say. He also had a protection from abuse order against him which should have prevented him from obtaining the shotgun.
"If you currently have a protection from abuse against you, then you can't obtain a gun," said David Zellis, former prosecutor and current chair of the Bucks County Domestic Violence Fatality Commission.
Zellis says he recommended to state and federal lawmakers back in 2008 to make it tougher for those with PFAs to obtain guns. Since that report was issued however, Zellis says changes have not been made.
"They have to tighten up the laws," he said. "If it means somehow creating a supervision that oversees people who are on protection from abuse orders or have been sentenced for time on protection of abuse violations, then we have to do it."
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Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler will join local police Friday morning to address issues with PFAs that came to a tragic light with Isackov's April killing.
