Ex-officer stands trial for murder of friend

Two friends were drinking in a bar in Bloomfield when a fight began. Within seconds, one man was dead and an ex-cop from the Pittsburgh Police sat back down at his seat and waited for police to arrive. The ex-cop’s murder trial will began last week, as the shooter is being charged with killing a friend of his back in September of 2013. The ex-officer joined Pittsburgh police in 1994, but was off duty and collecting workers’ compensation after he was injured in a Hill District car accident in 2010, but was officially retired when the shooting took place. Police say the man began drinking at the Torley Street bar at approximately 9 p.m. when he was joined by the victim, whose family owns the bar, at about 10 p.m. People who know the men say they were friends for at least twenty years. Witnesses say that at about 2:30 a.m., a fight broke out over the victim hitting suspect as he laid it on the bar top. Another man, a retired Pittsburgh Police Department detective, broke up the fight, but the fight started again when the victim accused the suspect of biting him on the arm. The bartender told police the men fell to the ground during the altercation and that the suspect shot the victim six or seven times before getting up and returning to the bar. The suspect’s lawyer believes the act was self-defense and that it is unclear who was the aggressor. The lawyer says that the victim may have been high on cocaine at the time of the fight, leading to his behavior. The ultimate question will be why the suspect shot the victim at least six times.