Dawn Long endured five gunshot wounds before reaching a barricaded bedroom and using her watch to contact emergency dispatchers.
LEBANON, Pa. — By the time Dawn Long reached her bedroom on March 25, 2025, she had been shot repeatedly in her arms and legs, had fought for control of a gun and was struggling to get away from the former husband who had entered her North Lebanon Township home. She barricaded the door and used her Apple Watch to trigger a 911 call that brought police and medics to the house.
About 18 months later, a Lebanon County jury concluded that the man she escaped, Darrell Long, had been trying to kill her. Jurors convicted the 63-year-old on Sept. 22 of attempted homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, burglary and harassment after a two-day trial. The verdict came after testimony reconstructed Dawn’s attempts to resist the attack, medical evidence documented the lasting damage and prosecutors presented messages and jail recordings they said showed planning, anger and an absence of remorse. Long’s defense did not center on whether he shot Dawn but on whether he intended to end her life. The jury found that he did.
The case began with a 911 call at about 5:17 p.m. on the day of the shooting. According to the Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office, Dawn reported that her ex-husband had entered her residence without permission while she was napping. When police arrived, she was suffering from gunshot wounds to multiple extremities. She was taken to a hospital in Hershey, where doctors treated extensive injuries. The emergency response was the endpoint of a confrontation in which Dawn repeatedly tried to defend herself even after she had been wounded, according to testimony and prosecutors’ account of the evidence.
Dawn told jurors she had fallen asleep on a living-room couch after returning from work. She awoke to find Long standing over her with a loaded .22-caliber firearm. District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said Long first struck Dawn in the face with the gun. He then shot her twice in the left leg while she was still near the couch. One of the bullets struck around her knee and another entered higher in the leg, according to Hess Graf’s description of the medical evidence. Dawn responded by kicking Long away, getting to her feet and reaching for the weapon rather than remaining on the couch.
What followed became a central piece of the prosecution’s case because it showed that the shooting was not confined to a single discharge or brief encounter. As the gun was pointed toward Dawn’s face, she raised her left hand and was shot through it. The wound caused severe damage to her index finger. Despite that injury and the wounds already suffered in her leg, she grabbed Long with her right arm and managed to force him to the floor. At one point, the firearm malfunctioned or the magazine became dislodged. Dawn saw Long struggling with the weapon and again moved toward him in an effort to stop the attack.
Long restored the gun to working condition and shot her in the right arm, prosecutors said. The bullet lodged there. Dawn, already bleeding from several wounds, testified that she no longer had the physical strength to continue fighting at close range. She began dragging herself toward the bedroom. Prosecutors said Long fired again and struck her in the right leg before she got through the doorway. Once inside, she blocked the entrance. Hess Graf said Dawn then repeatedly pressed or struck her Apple Watch until its emergency feature placed the 911 call. That call created the first direct route to outside help.
Long left before officers reached the residence. Hess Graf said he locked the home’s door as he departed. Prosecutors argued that his departure came as police were being summoned and as the couple’s child was expected to return home. The district attorney said the timing raised the possibility of another confrontation had the child arrived while the attack was continuing. Long ultimately surrendered to authorities within hours. In an interview with investigators, the district attorney’s office said, he admitted entering the home without permission, striking Dawn with the firearm and shooting her multiple times.
The injuries required an extended medical recovery. Hess Graf said Dawn underwent four surgeries. Some of the damage to her left hand is permanent, and her left leg continues to cause problems. A bullet remains lodged in her femur. The prosecutor has said Dawn is doing remarkably well considering what happened, but she continues to experience pain and will not fully regain the physical condition she had before the shooting. Those consequences were part of the evidence prosecutors used to establish serious bodily injury for the aggravated-assault counts, though the attempted-homicide charge required jurors to decide a different issue: Long’s state of mind.
Prosecutors argued that the circumstances before the shooting helped answer that question. Dawn and Long had separated and finalized their divorce in October 2023. Court records reviewed by investigators showed that the North Lebanon Township residence had once been the marital home, but Long no longer had a legal right to enter it. Authorities said Dawn eventually blocked him from contacting her on her cellphone. Long then used communications with their child to send messages that investigators said were intended for Dawn. Hess Graf said 23 hostile messages about her were sent during the month before the shooting.
One message about 17 days before the attack referred to Long having a direct line of sight into the home and suggested that their child could lose both parents, according to the district attorney. Prosecutors also linked Long’s worsening anger to a child-support filing. Hess Graf said receipt of the child-support paperwork became a significant trigger in the weeks before the shooting. A message sent shortly after Dawn’s emergency call complained about property, employment and child support and included the phrase “life for a life.” Investigators treated that communication, along with earlier threats, as part of the evidence showing what Long had been thinking before he entered the home armed.
The prosecution’s case did not stop with events before the attack. Jurors heard recorded calls Long made from the Lebanon County Correctional Facility. Local reporting said he spoke approvingly about having shot Dawn, made jokes about violence against women and minimized the severity of her injuries. Hess Graf said he described himself as a “hero” for what he had done and blamed Dawn for causing him to shoot her. Prosecutors used the calls to challenge any suggestion that the shooting resulted from panic, confusion or immediate remorse. Instead, they argued that his later words were consistent with the resentment documented in the messages sent before the attack.
Long’s attorney challenged the attempted-homicide charge by drawing a line between an intent to kill and an intent to cause severe injury. According to Hess Graf’s post-verdict discussion of the case, the defense argued that Long meant to make Dawn suffer but did not intend for her to die. That distinction was critical because Pennsylvania’s attempted-homicide charge required proof of a specific intent to kill. Prosecutors pointed to the number of shots, the length of the confrontation, Long’s conduct while Dawn tried to escape, the unauthorized entry and the earlier threats. After slightly more than an hour of deliberations, jurors returned guilty verdicts on all five counts.
The verdict shifted the case from determining criminal responsibility to deciding punishment. Hess Graf said after trial that Dawn had spent the period since the shooting hoping that a jury would hold Long accountable. The district attorney has said she plans to seek the maximum consecutive sentence available. Local reporting also indicated that prosecutors expect Long to appeal. Until sentencing, however, the verdict stands as the jury’s finding that the shooting was not merely an assault intended to injure but an attempt to kill.
Long is scheduled to appear before Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Judge Charles Jones Jr. on Dec. 9 for sentencing. Dawn’s emergency call, her testimony and the medical consequences of the shooting remain part of the record underlying that proceeding. No sentence had been imposed as of Nov. 8.
Author note: Last updated November 8, 2026.