Police say shooting victim wasn’t involved in hotel brawl
BROWNSVILLE – State police are saying that a Uniontown man critically injured in a shooting outside the Brownsville Hotel early Sunday was not involved in a fight and fatal stabbing that occurred at the bar just minutes earlier. “We believe the stabbing took place in the bar and the gentleman who got shot came into the bar with a friend, not knowing that anything had happened,” said trooper David Simpson, the investigating officer on the case.
Police were called to the Brownsville Hotel around 1:20 a.m. Sunday to deal with a fight. Simpson said that as Brownsville officer Autumn Fike arrived on the scene, she heard gunfire coming from the rear of the building.
She found Wilfredo Smith, 29, a former Brownsville resident now living in Uniontown, in a parking lot along Spring Street.
He had been shot in the back.
“We think he was just the victim of a random gunshot,” Simpson said.
Simpson said Fike was unaware that someone had already been stabbed in the bar when she responded to the call and found Smith on the ground. Smith was taken to Brownsville General Hospital by Brownsville Ambulance Service Inc.
There are no records of an ambulance being called for the stabbing victim, Robert Bristol, 24, of Monessen. It is believed that he was taken to Brownsville General Hospital by private vehicle.
Simpson said he believes it was the hospital that first notified officials that there had been a stabbing at the hotel. Bristol was pronounced dead at the hospital by the Fayette County coroner’s office at 2:15 a.m. Sunday.
Smith was flown from the hospital’s helipad to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. According to the state police, his injuries were critical. Smith underwent surgery Monday. Hospital officials were not releasing information about his condition.
Simpson said he still isn’t certain what started the initial fight inside the bar.
“We’ve heard different stories. It was just a group from Monessen and a group from Republic,” Simpson said.
Mike Shanaberger, owner of the Brownsville Hotel, said business at the bar had been slow until around midnight.
“Six or seven people from Monessen showed up; then, a group came in from Republic. Within 45 minutes, the DJ (disc jockey) came up to me and said to turn up the lights because he thought something was going on. I turned up the lights and turned off the music and said we were closed. Then, they started fighting. It was more of a shoving match, then they went outside,” Shanaberger said.
Shanaberger said he saw officer Fike pull up across the street from his bar, but she left before she came in.
“I guess she heard the shots,” Shanaberger said.
Shanaberger said he didn’t hear the gunfire, and he said it was about an hour later that he found out about the stabbing, as well.
“There was no blood in the bar, so I can’t tell you if it happened in the bar or outside. I did see a lot of blood in the (upper Market Street) parking lot. The police said that doesn’t matter, because sometimes stabbing victims don’t start bleeding immediately,” Shanaberger said.
Shanaberger kept the bar closed Sunday and Monday.
He said he isn’t certain when he’ll reopen.
“I just wish the place was paid for. I’d close it down for a couple of months and reopen with a different kind of music, or something,” Shanaberger said. “The only time I’ve had problems in here is when there are DJs, so I’m not going to do that any more. These were not our regular Brownsville customers.”
Shanaberger said that when he does reopen, he’ll scale back, closing around midnight on weekdays and maybe 1 a.m. on the weekends.
The incident prompted at least one club in town to close early.
Reginald Foman, the financial secretary at the Dunlap Lodge 214 of the Elks on Brownsville Avenue said a patron called to tell them about the fight at the Brownsville Hotel.
“We closed down. We stayed closed. We didn’t want it to spill over to us,” Foman said.
A fatal shooting at South Hills Terrace in Brownsville late last year reportedly began with an argument at the Dunlap Lodge. A suspect in that case is currently awaiting a preliminary hearing. Foman said the lodge doesn’t need any more incidents.
Simpson said there are some suspects in Sunday’s stabbing and shooting cases, but he is waiting for District Attorney Nancy Vernon to review the evidence before any charges are filed. Simpson said the first priority will be the homicide case.
“We want to make sure we do this right. We have a few suspects,” Simpson said.
The state police were asked to handle the investigation due to the amount of time it will take, according to Brownsville Mayor Norma Ryan and Police Chief Gerald Elliott.
“We don’t have the manpower. If we have one officer per shift, it would be humanly impossible to devote the manpower needed to properly investigate. This will take a lot of manpower,” Ryan said.
Elliott said that, in the past, Brownsville police would serve as the arresting officers for major cases, with the state police providing assistance.
In this case, Elliott said, the state police will handle the entire investigation.