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Updated 19 minutes ago
An Allegheny County woman was jailed Tuesday for allegedly firing several shots at a Trafford lounge after she was refused alcohol.
Police said Jamie Lee Dawson, 32, of Turtle Creek, was intoxicated when she was asked to leave Parente's Ristorante lounge around 2 a.m. Tuesday.
“I'm assuming you realize the seriousness of the charges you're facing,” Judge Helen Kistler said to Dawson during an arraignment hearing.
“Yes,” Dawson replied.
Dawson threatened two women who refused to sell her alcohol at the Cavitt Avenue lounge and pulled out a revolver, Trafford police said in an affidavit of probable cause. One of the women pushed Dawson out onto the sidewalk and pulled the door shut, police said.
“(The victim) got the door locked when shots were fired through the door glass and the window to the left of the door…,” Patrolman William Bell wrote in the complaint.
Police allege Dawson fired five or six shots. No one was injured.
A few bullet holes were visible at the lounge Tuesday afternoon, along with police evidence markers. A bullet apparently shattered the glass in a door. Other bullets appeared to have gone through the door and a window frame. Police said bullets struck the walls and a television set inside the bar.
A man at the Italian restaurant Tuesday declined to comment but said it's the first such incident there and that Dawson is not a regular customer.
Police found Dawson and the firearm at a relative's home in Trafford. Dawson admitted to shooting at the building, according to the affidavit.
Dawson told police and Kistler that she suffered a brain injury three years ago and that her memory is still sometimes affected.
Kistler set bail at $200,000 and ordered Dawson not to have contact with either victim or the lounge if she is released from Westmoreland County Prison.
She is charged with discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment and public drunkenness. An April 4 preliminary hearing is set.
Dawson is awaiting formal arraignment in two drunken-driving cases in Allegheny County. One involves a charge of aggravated assault by vehicle.
Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.
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