Men charged in shooting outside Greensburg bar treated city street 'like it was the O.K. Corral'

A 24-year-old man said he dropped his cane and tried to get to safety upon hearing gunshots as he left The Rialto bar in Greensburg last month but was struck by a bullet.

William Piscar testified he was leaving the establishment at the intersection of West Otterman Street and North Pennsylvania Avenue just before 2 a.m. when he caught a glimpse of a person holding a gun.

“I walked outside, I heard ‘What’s up,’ and that’s it,” he said. “I heard the first (shot), I dropped my cane” and unsuccessfully sought cover through a gate on the North Pennsylvania Avenue side.

Piscar didn’t realize until about an hour later that he had a gunshot wound to his buttocks.

His testimony came Thursday during preliminary hearings for two men who are accused of shooting at each other Jan. 30 outside the bar as patrons exited. Attempted homicide and related charges were ordered held for court against Evan R. Curley, 23, of Greensburg and Stevin German, 27, of Uniontown.

German initially requested a continuance to hire private counsel but later said he wanted to go forward with the hearing as District Judge Chris Flanigan questioned the need to reschedule the proceeding.

Greensburg police charged the pair last week in connection with the shooting after piecing together witness interviews and surveillance video. Curley suffered gunshot wounds to both legs and was in a wheelchair during the hearing.

Authorities believe the men were involved in an argument at the bar and separately went to their vehicles and retrieved guns. Officer William Newmyer testified that he was on patrol near the bar and heard the gunshots.

He found Curley on the ground.

“He immediately told me that he was involved in it, the shooting, and pointed to a firearm that was just past his feet, laying in the snow,” Newmyer said.

About eight shell casings were found on a sidewalk in a different area, he said. Both suspects denied shooting first.

Video from the bar showed Curley and German argue twice leading up to the shooting, according to police. Surveillance images helped investigators identify German as the second suspect, according to court papers.

Defense attorneys T. Brent McCune, representing Curley, and John Sweeney, representing German, argued that neither suspect had the intent of killing the other. McCune said his client has a potential self-defense argument.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar argued that their “identical plans” of retrieving firearms showed their intent.

“I am not characterizing it as a shootout; that’s what the circumstances characterize it as,” he said. “This was a duel … and that’s what they perpetrated 100 feet from where we are sitting at now. They wanted to prove who was tougher, and they wanted to do it by killing each other.”

Flanigan agreed.

“You shoot a gun at somebody, you have a specific intent to kill,” she said. “The arguments are very good, but the arguments are more appropriate for a jury than for me.”

She refused to set bail for either suspect, pointing to the seriousness of the shooting, community danger and flight risk.

Sweeney requested a $75,000 bail for German.

“I’m not a flight risk, ma’am,” German said.

McCune suggested a nonmonetary bail and house arrest for his client, who is unable to walk because of his injuries.

“He’s absolutely no flight risk,” McCune argued. “He has plates in his leg and pins in his leg. He is not even ambulatory. He’s suffering in these conditions at the Westmoreland County Prison.”

Lazar opposed any bail being set.

“This was two individuals who treated Pennsylvania Avenue like the O.K. Corral,” he said, referring to the site in Tombstone, Ariz., where Wyatt Earp and other lawmen got into a famous shootout with an outlaw gang in 1881.