Uniontown man killed over ongoing neighbor dispute
Ed Riedmann
Police investigate the scene of a fatal shooting in a parking lot next to Rizz’s restaurant on Main Street on Friday night.
Yasek
Durst
A Uniontown man was allegedly shot and killed by his former neighbor — a fatal conclusion to a feud that went on for several years, police said.
Nathan A. Yasek, 35, of Eight-Four is behind bars in the death of Timothy C. Durst Friday night in a parking lot next to Rizz’s bar and restaurant on Main Street. Durst was shot at about 10 p.m. and died on the way to Uniontown Hospital.
Durst was hit by .45-caliber rounds in the chest and upper back, police said.
Uniontown City Police Lt. Tom Kolencik said Durst and Yasek had been next-door neighbors, but no longer lived near one another. The feud rekindled when they encountered each other in the parking lot. It was not yet clear what started the dispute between the two men years ago, he said, or what they had been fighting about for so long.
Kolencik and other city officers found Durst with an apparent gunshot wound to the chest and made live-saving efforts until medics arrived moments later. Yasek was standing inside Rizz’s with a Springfield .45-caliber handgun. Fayette County Sheriff James Custer disarmed Yasek without resistance, court documents indicated.
Patrons in Rizz’s told officers Yasek “just shot someone,” according to the affidavit of probable cause filed in his case.
In the parking lot, Durst approached Yasek from behind and assaulted him, police said.
Yasek claimed he did not know who hit him, saying the assailant was a stranger. He claimed he shot Durst because he was afraid he would steal his truck with his girlfriend inside.
Yasek said Durst said “(expletive) you and your gun.”
State police collected evidence on the scene.
Yasek is charged with criminal homicide, recklessly endangering another person and two counts of aggravated assault.
He is awaiting his preliminary arraignment.