Man charged in shooting death

The victim was a bystander at a fist fight.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Eighteen months after Dwayne D. Brown was shot to death in the parking lot of a city bar, a Beckford Street man is charged in his death.

David T. Carter, 35, is charged with criminal homicide, persons not to carry a gun, carrying a firearm without a license and discharging a firearm within city limits in the May 6, 2006, shooting.

Carter was arraigned Thursday before District Justice Melissa Amodie and is being held without bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 1 in Lawrence County Central Court.

According to an affidavit filed to support the charges, Carter was at the Bomb Shelter bar on South Mill Street and got into a fight with another man in the parking lot. Witnesses told police that Carter was on the ground and being beaten by the other man when another patron broke up the fight.

Carter got up from the ground, bleeding and yelling. Police said he went to a brown sport utility vehicle and grabbed a handgun from underneath a seat.

According to police, Carter began shooting into a crowd that had gathered to watch the fight, and moving in the crowd as if he were chasing somebody. He drove off with another man.

Brown, 22, who was in the crowd, was shot in the right part of his back, and the bullet went through his lung and heart before exiting his chest, court papers stated.

Police said Carter has previously been convicted of a felony in Maryland and was not permitted to have a gun.