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Updated 2 hours ago
Pittsburgh police arrested the Executive Director of the county's Republican Committee over the weekend for allegedly yanking his 26-year-old girlfriend from the car and punching her, according to the affidavit filed Saturday in support of the arrest.
John Schnaedter, 36, is charged with one count of simple assault and released from the Allegheny County Jail on non-monetary bail, court records show.
A witness on Bailey Avenue called police after he saw a man, later identified as Schnaedter, and a woman arguing in a Jeep parked on the street, according to the criminal complaint. He told police he heard a woman screaming and saw “fists swinging,” followed by the woman lying on the sidewalk.
Schnaedter had taken off by the time police got there, according to the complaint.
The victim, Schnaedter's girlfriend, told police the two had been arguing about “petty stuff” in the Jeep and he had yanked her from the vehicle and punched her, police wrote in the complaint.
She said Schnaedter left walking toward their apartment on Eutaw Street.
The Tribune-Review does not identify victims of domestic violence.
Officers noted a small scratch on the victim's chin, a bruise on her lower lip, and mud and snow on her clothes, indicating she'd been on the ground, according to the complaint.
The woman repeatedly told police the assault was her fault, according to the complaint — she'd “antagonized him,” she said.
Police said that when they told the woman that state law dictates they arrest Schnaedter, she became “upset and uncooperative.”
Police found Schnaedter at the couple's apartment and arrested him on one charge of simple assault.
Before arresting Schnaedter, officers asked the victim questions from the Domestic Violence Lethality Assessment — a questionnaire used to identify domestic violence victims as the highest risk of being killed by their abusers.
The woman answered “yes” to three questions, police wrote, which did not meet the criteria for police to contact domestic violence advocates.
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