Investigators pieced together reports of an argument, early-morning bangs, a ride to church and an alleged confession before finding Michael Bushnell dead.
FREDERICK, Md. — Three people outside a Frederick home supplied investigators with different pieces of an alleged homicide timeline Sept. 20: a neighbor who described an electrical dispute, a driver who took Irwin Joseph Dickstein to church and a pastor who contacted authorities after Dickstein allegedly confessed to killing his roommate.
Taken together, those accounts became a bridge between what police say happened inside the Franklin Street residence and the discovery of 63-year-old Michael Roy Bushnell’s body. Frederick police later arrested Dickstein, 87, and initially charged him with first- and second-degree murder. A grand jury subsequently indicted him on first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony or crime of violence. The witness accounts remain allegations and evidence to be tested in court; no conviction has been entered.
The earliest outside account came from a neighbor who had spoken with Bushnell about electrical work at the shared residence. According to court documents summarized by local news outlets, Bushnell had been working on an electrical outlet and shut off the power. The neighbor said Dickstein became upset, and investigators were told the roommates argued. Around 5:30 a.m., the neighbor reported hearing several loud bangs from the house. The witness did not, based on the public reports reviewed for this article, claim to have seen the shooting itself.
What happened inside the home during that period has been described only in limited terms publicly. Charging documents reported by WBAL-TV say Bushnell was found in an upstairs bathroom and had been shot multiple times. Police have not released a complete reconstruction of the encounter, and the available public record does not provide a full forensic sequence. The electrical dispute therefore supplies context from a witness, but it should not be presented as a conclusively established motive or as proof of how the shooting unfolded.
Several hours later, a second witness entered the timeline. A man drove Dickstein to Frederick Christian Fellowship, according to the charging records. The driver told investigators that Dickstein said he needed to talk to a pastor. Reports say Dickstein also allegedly told the driver that he had killed his roommate. The driver’s account placed Dickstein away from the home after the shooting and gave investigators a witness who could describe both the trip to the church and statements allegedly made before police were called.
The driver’s vehicle also became relevant to the investigation. Court reporting says Dickstein left a case in the vehicle, and the driver told authorities about it. Police later obtained a warrant and recovered a Beretta handgun from the case. The discovery gave investigators a physical item to examine in connection with the homicide. However, the news reports and official police release reviewed for this story do not state that completed forensic testing conclusively linked that handgun to the projectiles or wounds in Bushnell’s death. That distinction matters because recovery and forensic identification are not the same thing.
The third account came from inside the church. Dickstein allegedly told a pastor that he had killed someone. The pastor then notified law enforcement at about 10:30 a.m., according to reports based on the court papers. Sheriff’s deputies responded to the information, and the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office contacted Frederick police. The account supplied not only an allegation that a killing had occurred but also information directing authorities toward the Franklin Street residence.
That call changed the investigation from a report about an alleged confession into a welfare check. Frederick police said officers went to the unit block of Franklin Street, found the residence unsecured and entered. Inside, they found Bushnell dead. The department had not been responding to an active shooting at that point and said the case was isolated, with no continuing threat to the community. Police then sought Dickstein at a different location and arrested him without incident.
A fourth source of information emerged when detectives questioned Dickstein. Reports describing the probable cause affidavit say he allegedly admitted killing Bushnell, identified him by name and confirmed that he was at the Franklin Street home. Dickstein then said he would not continue answering questions without an attorney. Investigators ended the reported interview at that point. His invocation of the right to counsel is constitutionally protected and should not be interpreted as an admission or used to strengthen the allegations beyond whatever admissible statements preceded it.
The result was a case built initially from several kinds of evidence rather than a single eyewitness account of the shooting. Investigators had the neighbor’s report of a dispute and loud noises, the driver’s account of the trip and alleged statements, the pastor’s report of an alleged confession, Dickstein’s own reported statements to detectives, Bushnell’s body at the residence and a handgun recovered from the driver’s vehicle. Each part answers a different question about the morning, but the prosecution must still establish the legal connection among those pieces beyond a reasonable doubt.
Police charged Dickstein shortly after his arrest and took him to the Frederick County Adult Detention Center. He was held without bail, according to reports. The initial case included first- and second-degree murder allegations. Frederick police kept many investigative details private and said additional information was being withheld to preserve the integrity of the case. That decision left the charging affidavit and subsequent court reporting as the primary public sources for the claimed argument, church visit and firearm recovery.
The legal posture changed when a Frederick County grand jury indicted Dickstein. WFMD reported in October that the indictment charged him with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in a felony or crime of violence. A grand jury proceeding determines whether there is enough basis for formal felony charges to proceed; it does not determine guilt. The firearm count also places greater legal importance on the prosecution’s evidence concerning the weapon, although the public record reviewed here does not disclose the full results of any ballistic or laboratory examination.
Separately, the defense raised Dickstein’s competency to stand trial. He was ordered to undergo an inpatient competency evaluation, and a hearing was scheduled for Oct. 13. Competency is concerned with a defendant’s current ability to understand the case and assist an attorney, not with criminal responsibility at the time of the alleged offense. Public reporting located through Nov. 8 does not reliably state what the court decided at that scheduled hearing, so the case’s present competency status cannot be independently confirmed from the available sources.
The witness sequence remains one of the clearest ways to understand the investigation without overstating what is known. A neighbor provided context before the shooting was discovered. A driver described Dickstein’s actions after he left the residence and pointed police toward a firearm case. A pastor reported an alleged confession. Officers then found Bushnell and located Dickstein. That chain gave law enforcement multiple leads within hours, but it will be for a court to decide what evidence is admissible, reliable and sufficient to prove the charges.
What began with separate accounts from a neighbor, a driver and a pastor is now a Circuit Court prosecution in which those statements and the physical evidence may face closer scrutiny. The available record does not show that the case has reached trial or resulted in a verdict, and no reliable report reviewed through Nov. 8 confirms how the court resolved the competency issue raised after Dickstein’s arrest.
Author note: Last updated November 8, 2026.