On a well-groomed Dormont hillside Sunday, stunned neighbors struggled to grasp the news that one of their friends stood accused of killing his wife hours earlier in the home they had lived in for decades.
David Angle, 62, the brother of Olympian and professional wrestler Kurt Angle, was jailed and awaiting arraignment Sunday on a homicide charge in the death of Donna Angle, 57.
“Dave’s a good person. Whatever happened, I’m going to pray for him. This isn’t what Dave is,” said Joe Setticase, 63, who attended Keystone Oaks High School with Mr. Angle and lives nearby. “Donna was a sweetheart.”
According to Allegheny County police, Dormont police and paramedics responded at 6:24 a.m. to the 1000 block of Peermont Avenue for report of a domestic disturbance and a woman not breathing. There they found Mrs. Angle unresponsive on the floor of the living room. David Angle told them the couple had a dispute and he kneeled on his wife’s chest and pulled her arms.
She was taken to St. Clair Hospital and pronounced dead at 7:13 a.m. An Allegheny County medical examiner’s office supervisor said her autopsy was scheduled for today.
In an interview with police, David Angle said he and wife were in the living room at about 3 a.m. Sunday when she offered him some vodka, county homicide Detective Scott Towne wrote in a criminal complaint. He told her he didn't want any, but she continued to “badger him about drinking with her,” and it escalated into an argument, the complaint continued.
“He said all of their arguments revolved around alcohol and added that he has ‘anger issues,’ ” the detective wrote.
After his wife tried to kick him, he “grabbed both of her arms, pulled her off the couch, put his foot on her chest and then pulled,” the complaint said. He told police he couldn’t recall how long he did that but said “it was not for minutes.”
He told police she became unconscious and he tried unsuccessfully to revive her before calling 911.
Dave Hawk, who is listed on Kurt Angle’s website as his wrestling manager, confirmed the brothers’ relationship.
“Due to the situation, Kurt would appreciate if you can honor his family's request for privacy at his difficult time,” he said in a text message.
Court records revealed at least one troubling moment in the couple’s history.
In 2001, David Angle filed a protection-from-abuse order against his wife, resulting in her being excluded from the home and custody of their two children granted to him, according to court records. Further details of that case weren’t immediately available.
State criminal court records show that David Angle was ordered earlier this year to go through the county’s accelerated rehabilitative disposition program in connection with a 2014 arrest for driving under the influence of a controlled substance.
David Angle once worked as an operating engineer for Allegheny County, but is no longer employed there, a county spokeswoman said.
Back in Dormont, Mr. Setticase said Mrs. Angle was a daughter of a former Carnegie police chief and “would do anything for you.” The Angles even gave food to laborers who dug up the neighborhood sidewalks for utility work, he said.
“You couldn’t help but like Donna and Dave,” said Mr. Setticase, who called Mr. Angle a natural athlete in “anything and everything he did.”
The sun began to fade over Peermont Avenue as Mr. Setticase looked toward the Angle property, where a close-cropped lawn and tidy landscaping enveloped a silent house. The Rev. Albert Stuart, 49, another neighbor, said Mr. Angle added a second-floor deck and a retaining wall at the home.
Mr. Angle and his siblings grew up there before he and his wife bought the place, neighbors said. His mother, Jackie Angle, died in February.
“I’ve known Dave all my life, and I’ve known Donna 30-plus years. Good people,” Rev. Stuart said. “I just can’t wrap my head around it.”
