Feb 28, 2013 2 min read

A Nottingham Township woman was arrested late Wednesday after ballistics tests showed that two shots fired at a Nottingham home last May came from her Ruger 9mm handgun.

Martha Susan Wisniewski, 58, of 1153 Venetia Road, turned herself in to state police. She was arraigned before District Judge Robert Redlinger on charges of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.

State police were called to a home at 207 Pine Nut Drive, Nottingham, on May 30. Elyse Marie Hause told police that she was sitting in her family room with her two children when she heard two gun shots. She told police that she didn’t think much of it at the time because she would frequently hear neighbors shooting guns. When Hause’s husband, Jeffrey, came home from work, he found bullet holes in a rear bedroom.

State police went to Wisniewski’s home later that day. She told police that she recently purchased the semiautomatic pistol to shoot groundhogs that were around her home eating her cats.

Wisniewski told police that she had shot at a groundhog in a lower field, which is just below the housing plan where the Hauses reside. Her gun jammed, so she gave it to her husband to fix. She then fired another shot, but the weapon again jammed.

Police took a shell casing that Wisniewski retrieved from her garbage. A trooper with forensic services then removed a bullet that had been fired into the bedroom wall. The casing and bullet were sent to the state police laboratory in Harrisburg. Police learned earlier this month the bullet came from Wisniewski’s gun.

Wisniewski is free on $25,000 unsecured bond. A preliminary hearing is set for March 6 before District Judge James Ellis.