Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The victim was shot four times.
STAFF REPORT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Police have made an arrest in the Jan. 12 shooting of an Ellwood City man.
Eric Grimm, 27, was shot four times through a kitchen window around 11:30 p.m. while he was at a home on Florence Avenue in New Castle.
An affidavit of probable cause in the arrest indicates that the real target of the shooting was the home- owner, not Grimm.
Jon A. Campbell, 52, of North Beaver Street in New Castle is charged with criminal attempt to commit homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, prohibited possession of a firearm, and carrying an unlicensed firearm.
He also was charged with possession and delivery of a controlled substance in an unrelated incident.
He was arrested Saturday and is in the Lawrence County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond.
His preliminary hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Feb. 3 at Lawrence County Central Court.
Grimm was flown after the shooting to a hospital in Pittsburgh.
According to the affidavit on file at District Magistrate Melissa Amodie’s office, he was home by Jan. 19 when police went to his Ellwood City home to interview him.
Grimm told police he was asleep in the basement at the Florence Avenue home, got up to use the bathroom upstairs and saw a man outside the kitchen window. The man started shooting.
He told police he was shot four times, once in the neck, twice in the right arm and once in the left hand.
A bone in his right shoulder was shattered, and he was still awaiting surgery, he told police.
The affidavit says that the Florence Avenue homeowner told police he’d had a confrontation with Campbell a few days before the shooting, and told him to stop selling pills to a girlfriend.
Police had an active narcotics case against Campbell, who sold four Roxicodone tablets to a confidential informant in May, the affidavit said.
Police got permission from the county district attorney’s office to record a conversation between an informant and Campbell regarding the open narcotics case and the shooting, the affidavit says.
A meeting was arranged between the informant and Campbell on Jan. 23, the affidavit says. Police recorded the informant asking why Campbell shot Grimm instead of the homeowner.
“Campbell stated that he was the only person in the window and that it was ‘crossfire,’” the affidavit says.
The affidavit also says Campbell gave the informant four pills in exchange for $100. Police determined them to be Roxicodone. They will be sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Laboratory in Greensburg for analysis.
The affidavit also says Grimm picked Campbell out of a photo lineup and identified him as the man who shot him.