Uniontown police seek shooting suspect
Uniontown police have secured a warrant for the arrest of a man accused of shooting a Uniontown man during a scuffle Tuesday night that left him suffering two gunshot wounds and also left a second man suffering a stab wound.
Uniontown police Detective Donald M. Gmitter said Magisterial District Judge Michael M. Metros issued a warrant for the arrest of Virdell Banks Jr., 28, of 355 Cleveland Ave. on charges including attempted homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, illegal possession of a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license, recklessly endangering another person and two counts of simple assault.
Gmitter said that around 11:30 p.m. police received information that a man suffering a gunshot wound was outside the police station and also received information that a man suffering a stab wound was being admitted to Uniontown Hospital.
Gmitter said that police learned that both victims, later identified as Justin Fletcher, 29, of 136 Lincoln St., Uniontown, and Trenton Branch, 23, of 355 Cleveland Ave., Uniontown, were each wounded during an altercation outside J&B’s Bar near the intersection of Searight Avenue and Dunlap Street.
Fletcher, who suffered a gunshot wound to his right arm and a grazing gunshot wound to his abdomen, told police that he stepped outside the bar to talk to some friends when five men, including Banks and Branch, exited the bar and began to yell at him.
Fletcher said one of the men punched him in the face knocking him to the ground and then several of the men began to kick him, Gmitter said.
He told police he was able to get up from the ground but noted that Banks then pulled out a handgun and began to fire shots at him, Gmitter said.
Fletcher told investigators that he ran from the scene and while fleeing he was struck by bullets in the right arm and stomach.
Gmitter said he continued to run until he reached the police department.
He was initially taken by Uniontown Firemen’s Ambulance to Uniontown Hospital and later moved to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va. for additional treatment.
During the altercation, police said Branch was stabbed in the left shoulder by an unidentified assailant .
He too was taken to Uniontown Hospital for treatment where he refused to divulge to police any information regarding his injury or the altercation.
Anyone with information regarding Banks’ whereabouts is asked to call police at 724-430-2929.
Banks was one of five suspects charged in 2002 with assaulting and robbing a couple from Ohio that made a wrong turn and got lost in Bierer Wood Acres in South Union Township.
He served a lengthy prison sentence as a result and had been on state parole until several months ago when his term expired, police said.