An East Deer man who hopped in a police car for a courtesy ride to his father’s home hours before he allegedly killed him was “polite and compliant,” a police chief said.
Police Chief Mike Naviglia of the Allegheny Valley Regional Police Department said Shane Howard was walking along Freeport Road in Cheswick about 9 p.m. Tuesday when Officer Chris Fabec saw him and offered to give him a lift.
“He wasn’t acting strange,” Naviglia said of Howard.
The chief said Fabec offered Howard a ride because he appeared to be intoxicated, and the officer was concerned about him walking along Freeport Road at night.
“It was safer to give him a ride than let him walk home,” Naviglia said.
Fabec gave Howard a ride to his father’s home in Harmar.
About six hours later, Howard, 23, went to the Harmar police station and told the on-duty officer, “I accidentally killed my dad,” Allegheny County Police said.
Howard is charged with homicide and tampering with evidence in the death of his father, David Howard, 47.
He was denied bond Thursday and remained in Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh.
His public defender, Joshua Guckert, couldn’t be reached for comment.
The shooting occurred in David Howard’s RV trailer in the 700 block of Guys Run Road, police said.
Following Shane Howard’s alleged confession, an officer went to the trailer and found David Howard lying face down on the floor, shot in the head.
Howard told police that he got into an argument with his girlfriend Tuesday evening and left her sister’s house on foot. He was walking along Freeport Road when Fabec, a part-time Allegheny Valley police officer who also serves as Gilpin’s police chief, gave him a courtesy ride to his father’s home, according to the complaint.
Howard told police he had lived with his father but moved out to live with his girlfriend and their baby, according to his arrest papers.
The arrest complaint said Howard told police he and his father began fighting after David Howard criticized his son’s girlfriend. At one point, the complaint said, Shane Howard grabbed more beers, and that appeared to calm the situation.
Allegheny County Police said Shane Howard was drinking alcohol and told detectives he was drunk at the time of the shooting.
Naviglia believes Howard was drunk when Fabec picked him up, but not “to a point that he would harm himself or anybody else.”
Howard said tempers flared again after he called his girlfriend to apologize and his father overheard him on the phone, the complaint said. A fight ensued.
Howard told police that he hit his father in the face and head with a fire extinguisher before he shot him with a shotgun.
He said he thought his father was reaching for a nearby rifle, according to police.
Howard told police that he held the shotgun to the back of his father’s head and the gun went off, the complaint said.
Police said he then called a friend to pick him up and put the rifle and the shotgun in his friend’s trunk.
Police spoke with Howard’s friend, who told them that he convinced Howard to turn himself in to the police, the complaint said.
The friend said he was unaware the rifle and shotgun had been placed in his trunk. Allegheny County Police confirmed Thursday that both guns had been recovered from the trunk.
A preliminary hearing is set for March 6.
