Minutes before David E. Sink aimed a drawn compound bow at a state trooper from the porch of a Porter Township house, a postal worker was startled by a bloodied woman opening the front door and yelling, “Rape! Please help me!”

The trooper, Marshall J. Hummel of the Schuylkill Haven barracks, shot Sink in the leg after he aimed the bow at him a second time.

In an ambulance on the way to the hospital, Sink told a state trooper he “did it just to get out of the relationship.”

The 32-year old woman’s right eye was swollen shut, her left eye was bruised, her face bloodied, and her neck had four fingernail scratches.

“Today was the nastiest I’ve ever seen him,” she told police.

Drugs may have been involved.

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Trooper Norbert J. Brennan of the Jonestown barracks with on-call District Judge David Rossi of Tremont, here’s how the situation unfolded.

At 10:50 a.m. Oct. 19, police were called to a North Yohe Street residence in the Reinerton section of the township for a domestic dispute.

Hummel arrived at 11:15 a.m., but couldn’t find the woman, so he left at 11:53 a.m.

But at 12:24 p.m., he was again called to the area on a report of a woman, shirtless and appearing intoxicated, walking in the street.

Off-duty Tower City police chief John Boyer arrived just ahead of Hummel.

As they approached the house, the woman ran out, shirtless and with her face bloodied.

Sink came out onto the front porch and yelled, “I’m armed. Leave me alone.”

He was hefting a compound bow, loaded with a razor broad head, the bow string pulled about three-quarters of the way back.

Hummel yelled for him to drop the bow. Sink refused. Hummel repeated the order two more times, with Sink ignoring the commands.

Hummel, who was near the front porch, fired multiple rounds from his semi-automatic Sig Sauer .45 service pistol.

Sink ducked back into the house, emerging seconds later with the bow string fully drawn.

Hummel fired two or three more shots, hitting him in the left leg.

Boyer and Hummel secured both Sink and his bow.

Cry for help

Further investigation revealed that as a postal worker delivered mail to the house, the woman opened the door and yelled “Rape, please help me.”

A neighbor doing yard work told police he saw a man and woman arguing, and had called 911. The yelling stopped when Boyer arrived, the man said.

When the woman yelled to the postal worker, the neighbor walked over. He saw the woman at the door, her face bloody.

“Help me, he raped me,” she yelled just before Sink pulled her back into the house by her neck.

When Hummel arrived and walked to the front steps, the woman bolted from a side door and collapsed on the grass.

Weapon drawn, Hummel walked over to her. Sink came out of the house pointing the bow at the trooper.

After Sink and the woman had been taken to the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, state police Cpl. John E. Petrone II went into the house and immediately smelled a strong chemical odor that made it so hard to breathe he had to leave.

Brennan noticed a shed in the back yard equipped with meth lab equipment.

On the way to the hospital, Sink told Trooper Keith Rudy “I wanted them to shoot me. I wanted them to end my life. I didn’t mean to cause you guys stress. I did it just to get out of the relationship. I wanted to get hit. I did not want to hit anyone. I’m sorry.”

At the hospital, he told medical staff, “I believe I was shot. I was in a bad relationship. I tried to get the police to kill me.”

Sink is charged with two counts of attempted criminal homicide, 11 counts of aggravated assault, six counts of simple assault, possession of a weapon, three counts of recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct, and three counts of harassment.

He is awaiting a preliminary hearing.