Man charged in arson damage to D’s Six Pax & Dogz in Swissvale
Wheeling Police arrested a Pittsburgh man on Wednesday wanted on charges he started a fire that damaged a Swissvale bar over the weekend, according to police and West Virginia news reports.
Joseph Pepp, 28, is charged with three counts of aggravated arson.
Pepp is accused of setting fire to a recycling dumpster behind The Loft on South Braddock Avenue. The flames spread to a telephone pole and damaged the neighboring restaurant, D’s Six Pax & Dogz.
D’s management wrote on Facebook Tuesday the bar would remain closed for at least the rest of the week as a result of the early Sunday fire. General manager Rena Agostinone said Sunday the damage was contained mostly to the back of the building near the restaurant’s beer cave.
According to the charges against Pepp, an altercation at The Loft, a bar next to D’s, preceded the fire.
A bartender who served Pepp and two others early Sunday said two of the men bought gin and tonics, and one of the men handed a drink off to Pepp, according to the complaint. The bartender said he believed the men went outside with the drinks, as he found glasses outside the next day.
The bartender told police he called for last call about 1:45 a.m., according to the complaint, and one of the men with Pepp approached and tried to order another round about 2:05 a.m. The bartender said he told the men they appeared drunk.
Upon hearing it was past last call and the bartender thought he was drunk, Pepp became angry, slamming his fists onto the bar, according to the complaint. The bartender told police the Pepp told him, “You think I’m (expletive) up, I’ll show you (expletive) up,” police wrote.
Everyone was out of the bar by about 2:24 a.m., according to the complaint, although the bartender, his girlfriend and a friend remained. Minutes later, someone called the bar and reported a fire behind the building, police said. The trio tried to extinguish the fire, set in a recycling dumpster, to no avail.
Swissvale firefighters eventually put out the flames, but not before they spread to a telephone pole and the building, itself, police said.
Security footage from behind the building showed a man with shoulder-length hair wearing a light-colored cowboy hat setting cardboard in the dumpster on fire, according to the complaint, and the bartender identified the man as Pepp, who he knew as “JoJo.”
Damages are estimated at around $30,000 — not counting the loss of business for D’s.
Wheeling TV station WTRF reported Tuesday morning Pepp was arrested in Wheeling.
Court records did not list an attorney for Pepp as of late Tuesday afternoon.
D’s is in the Swissvale section of the Regent Square neighborhood that also includes parts of Edgewood and Pittsburgh.
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