Masontown officer who was injured in mass shooting receives gift
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Masontown police Sgt. Scott Miller is presented with a new pair of Amaze hearing aids from Debbie Conn, a hearing aid practitioner at Beltone Hearing Care Center in Uniontown.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Masontown police Sgt. Scott Miller tries on a new pair of Amaze hearing aids, a gift from Beltone Hearing Care Center in Uniontown.
Masontown police Sgt. Scott Miller and his wife, Lisa, left, check out a new pair of Amaze hearing aids given to Scott by Debbie Conn, a hearing aid practitioner at Beltone Hearing Care Center in Uniontown.
The Masontown officer who was shot while confronting a mass shooter in September received a surprise gift of hearing aids Wednesday.
Thinking he was stopping by the Beltone Hearing Care Center to pick up a check for a charity donation, Masontown police Sgt. R. Scott Miller appeared suddenly bashful when staff and reporters poured into the Uniontown office lobby.
“I wasn’t the only one that did something that day,” he said. “There were seven other officers there who did what I did.”
On Sept. 19, Patrick Dowdell, 61, opened fire at the Masontown Borough building, where he was supposed to appear before Magisterial District Judge Daniel C. Shimshock for a preliminary hearing. When Dowdell’s wife, Crystal Dowdell, told him she wanted a divorce Aug. 25, he reportedly wrapped a belt around her neck and told her he would kill her and anyone else he had to.
Miller, a Cumberland Township resident, was the first officer to encounter Dowdell, who opened fire into the packed building about 2 p.m. Dowdell shot Miller in the hand, then wounded Crystal Dowdell and two others before he was gunned down by a German Township police officer. All the victims survived their injuries.
“I don’t think I’m a hero,” Miller said. “I just happened to engage the shooter first, and I just happened to get shot.”
Miller took the compression sleeve from his left hand to show where a bullet went through his ring finger and lodged in his palm.
“I was just doing my job, and I would do it again,” he said.
His wife, Lisa Miller, said she was surprised on the day of the shooting to see Masontown police Chief Joe Ryan calling her from his cellphone. She answered and heard high-pitched voices, which she thought was laughter. She then received a call from state police Trooper Anthony Vittone, who informed her about the shooting and calmed her. Troopers took her to a Pittsburgh hospital, where her husband would have his ring finger amputated.
Despite the fact her husband was injured, Miller said working as a police officer is “good for him.” She received an outpouring of support from state police, Masontown police and other departments, she said.
“I don’t worry about my husband,” she said, adding she believes people are protected when fulfilling their God-given purpose. “He’s very good at what he does.”
Miller said he thinks about that day less and less. Initially, he wondered when it would no longer be the first thing he thought about in the morning and the last thing he thought about at night.
He relived his experiences during the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Squirrel Hill Oct. 27 that left 11 dead. Six others were injured, including four officers. Like Miller, the first officer to engage the shooter was shot in the hand.
“I’m very grateful to the Lord that I’m still alive,” he said. “It could have easily gone a different way for me.”
Beltone retail manager Mindy Caplan told Miller she lives one block away from the synagogue.
“I have such a huge respect for what you do. After seeing what those officers did …” she said, pausing and searching for words. “It makes you speechless.”
When clinic staff heard an officer was shot in Masontown, they instantly worried for Miller, said hearing care practitioner Debbie Conn. He received his first pair of hearing aids from them in 2011.
Beltone held a food drive and allowed the office that collected the most donations to pick a recipient for a new pair of Amaze hearing aids.
“Oh man. They’re amazing,” Miller said as they were calibrated, grinning at his plug for the brand.
Lisa Miller kept the gift a secret. The couple was also picking up a donation for his charity of choice – the Guatemala Fund of Waynesburg Bible Chapel’s Hand and Feet Ministry – which Scott Miller thought was the sole reason for the errand.
He said he was surprised and grateful for the gift.
“Most of my job deals with listening to people. A small amount of it deals with action,” he said, adding he frequently speaks with victims, defendants or witnesses. “I need to hear what they’re saying, and I need to hear it all.”
Miller is antsy to return to work. While doctors won’t give him a timetable for recovery, he is setting a personal goal for March. He demonstrated the mobility in his fingers he is regaining through physical therapy. He needs to be able to make a fist to return to work, and he estimates he is halfway there.
“I want to go back. I’ve wanted to go back since the very next day,” he said.