By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times

A 22-year-old Westtown Township man told police he was awakened Tuesday night to the sounds of a gunshot and his father’s screams.

Officers from the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department responded to a single-family home in the 800 block of General Howe Drive at 10:39 p.m. for the reported shooting, which left a 46-year-old woman, who was not identified by police, in stable condition, Lt. William Cahill said.

Cahill said the son entered his parent’s bedroom on the second floor and found that his mother was shot and his father was trying to stop the bleeding on his mother’s face. Officers set-up a perimeter around the residence and made contact with the 47-year-old male homeowner, who reported that he was placing his pistol under his pillow when the gun accidentally discharged, striking his ex-wife in the face. Police said that the couple was legally divorced but had been back together for at least a year and that there was no evidence of any altercation.

The woman was transported to the West Chester University athletic fields, where a MedEvac helicopter flew her to Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Cahill said.  The woman, who remains in stable condition, was conscious when loaded into the helicopter, Cahill said.

One team of detectives examined the shooting scene and collected all evidence as the second team conducted interviews of the 47-year-old male and his son; a 20-year-old daughter, who was not home at the time of the shooting, was also interviewed, Cahill said.  The Kimber .45 caliber pistol recovered at the scene was legally owned by the homeowner, who was cooperative and provided a detailed statement to detectives, Cahill said.

The Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police Department received assistance from the District Attorney’s Office, Chester County Detectives, officers from the Birmingham Township, West Chester, and West Goshen Police Departments, and the West Chester Fire Company, Cahill said.

The case remains under investigation, and no other information will be released at this time, Cahill said.