Police charge Duquesne man in fatal Safari Club shooting

Police on Tuesday arrested a Duquesne man in the killing of Tywone McClain last weekend inside a city bar.

Marvin Harpool, 51, shot McClain, 26, once in the head last Friday at the Safari Club bar, according to a criminal complaint.

Harpool had stepped between McClain and an unnamed woman to break up an altercation.

Harpool had entered the Grant Avenue bar around 10:30 p.m. — an hour before the shooting, the complaint said. Before the confrontation, he sat at the bar and drank a bottle of Yuengling beer, which police later seized as evidence.

It is unclear if the two men knew each other, an Allegheny County Police spokesman told TribLive.

Around 11:35 p.m., surveillance footage from the bar showed Harpool rise from a chair to stand between McClain and the unnamed woman as the pair argued, the complaint said.

When Harpool pulled out a handgun, the argument continued but the woman stepped between the men.

Moments later, Harpool pushed McClain and then shot him once in the head, the complaint said. He then fled.

First responders took McClain to UPMC Mercy hospital, where he died about two hours later, the complaint said.

Police said they later found one spent 9mm shell casing at the scene.

Two witnesses at the bar that night identified Harpool in police photo arrays as the shooter, the complaint said.

One of those witnesses told police that Harpool, who people knew by the nickname “Tiny,” had been in “a few verbal altercations” that night, according to the complaint.

Detectives with the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office took Harpool into custody Tuesday after a vehicle believed to be linked to the shooting was spotted in a Wilkinsburg grocery store parking lot.

When Harpool returned to the vehicle he was apprehended.

Allegheny County Police charged Harpool with homicide and a firearm count. He was awaiting arraignment Tuesday afternoon.

Harpool cannot legally carry a gun because he pleaded guilty in 2011 to three drug charges, according to police and court records. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III sentenced Harpool at that time to 2½-5 years in prison.

McClain also had past run-ins with authorities. He pleaded guilty to a theft charge in Greensburg in 2023, court records show.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Christopher A. Feliciani sentenced McClain at that time to 214 to 428 days in prison, according to court records.