Woman names husband as culprit in her killing

Police were able to talk to Tammy Cox before she died of a gunshot wound.

At 5:06 a.m. Saturday, a McKeesport man called 911 and told police someone outside had shot his wife. When police arrived at his apartment, he told them she shot herself.

But, police said, before his wife died in a nearby hospital an hour later, she fingered her husband as the man who pulled the trigger.

Allegheny County Police this weekend arrested Robert Cox, 50, on one charge — criminal homicide. He remained in Allegheny County Jail on Monday. A day earlier, a judge denied him bail.

Court records did not list Cox’s attorney. His preliminary hearing is Sept. 27.

Police provided no details in their criminal complaint about what might have led Cox to shoot his wife of nearly 13 years, Tammy, in the public housing complex he listed as his home address.

After placing the 911 call, Cox invited city police into his apartment and they did a “protective sweep,” the complaint said. Inside, they found a shotgun and two handguns in plain view.

Tammy Cox, 53, had at least one gunshot wound to her upper chest and back, police said. The couple was home alone at the time of the shooting.

“Tammy Cox told police that Robert Cox shot her,” police wrote in the complaint.

First responders rushed Tammy Cox to UPMC McKeesport hospital, where she died at 6:17 a.m., the complaint said.

Police said security camera footage from the Crawford Village apartment complex recorded audio of a single gunshot at 5:05 a.m., the complaint said.

The couple — then Robert G. Cox and Tammy E. Lee — married on the last day of 2011, Allegheny County records showed. Four months earlier, Cox had divorced his previous wife, Karen.

Karen Cox did not return calls Monday seeking comment.