Wife Shot Pittsburg Principal, Charged With Attempted Murder

The wife of a California school principal was charged Wednesday with attempted murder for shooting her husband who was left on life support.

Maria Vides, 39, faces a charge of attempted willful, deliberate and premeditated murder after she allegedly shot her husband Saturday at Pittsburg, California. Her charge includes causing bodily injury and causing a brain injury and paralysis.

Pittsburg Police Department posted details of the shooting on its official Facebook page. The post said the shooting took place after a domestic altercation between Vides and her 45-year-old husband Paul Shatswell. Shatswell, the principal of Pittsburg Unified Adult School, suffered a brain injury and was paralyzed after the shooting. He was taken to a local hospital where he is in a coma.

Vides, who was the president of Bay Area Construction Management Accounting Inc., shot her husband with a handgun. No one else was injured in the incident and police removed the weapon from the scene. Vides was arrested and after charges were filed Wednesday, she was booked into the Martinez detention facility.

The news of the incident has shocked the community and has left them stunned. “The Paul and Maria Shatswell I know are really the couple everyone would want to be-they did everything together. Looking at them you say - that’s love - that’s what love looks like,” Earl VanBurskirk Jr., a friend of the couple, said.

According to one of Vides’ former colleagues, Nicky Ballas, “Maria would give you the shirt off her back, her last dollar, be there for you in any situation, at any time. She is the most selfless person I’ve ever known,” local newspaper Mercury News reported.

Several other friends of the couple also expressed shock and said Vides and Shatswell shared the same values and loyalties to family and friends. They were “always laughing, loving and enjoying life together. They are the best of friends...”

One of their neighbors, John Tiscareno, said, “He is a wonderful man- very family-oriented. They were also with their kids, always doing stuff. It really surprises me big time. They were the perfect family,” adding that Shatswell's children from his previous marriage often used to visit him.

“Along with being our adult education principal, Paul was born and raised in Pittsburg, and his children attended, and attend, our schools. His impact is wide across our Pittsburg Community,” Pittsburg Unified School District superintendent Janet Schulze said in a statement.

The school district also had additional counselors on site at the adult education center on Monday as well as at the school where Shatswell and Vides’ children attend.

Shatswell had eight children, including three with Vides. They are between the ages of 6 to 29.

An online fundraiser was created by the couple's friends to help raise money for the children and to help the family with “the financial strain that comes from this tragedy.” It aims to collect $25,000 for the family. By Wednesday afternoon, the campaign had raised almost $5000. The whereabouts of the children at the time of the incident was not revealed.