Background: The Planet Fitness at Crossroads Plaza in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania (Google Maps). Inset: Steven Heald (Pennsylvania State Police).
A Pennsylvania man is accused of shooting his estranged wife's new partner in the parking lot of a gym, hitting him, and then calmly driving away.
Steven Heald, 38, stands charged with attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and misdemeanor stalking. He is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison without bail.
On Tuesday at about 1 p.m., a man was "in the parking lot of a Planet Fitness" at Crossroads Plaza in Mount Pleasant when suddenly another man — Heald — approached him, the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office said. The two men spoke to each other before Heald allegedly pulled out a gun and fired it three times.
"He didn't stop then," Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said, as reported by Pittsburgh NBC affiliate WPXI. "He stood over top and struck him several times, and then walked away, got in his vehicle and drove to the Connellsville area."
Connellsville is about nine miles south of the crime scene.
Police arrived at the parking lot of the Planet Fitness to find the victim with gunshot wounds to his shoulder, buttocks, hip, and thigh. He also had suffered "several lacerations on his hand, face, and head area," law enforcement added.
Authorities said the victim was lucky to be alive and credited his care to a nurse who happened to be at the gym at the time.
"Without having a person with some expertise there immediately and all of the people that were trying to stop the bleeding and do the things to try and help keep [the victim] alive, there is a high aptitude that he would not have survived," Limani said.
State troopers spoke with the victim, who reportedly identified Heald as his attacker, and police said witnesses and surveillance footage backed up the man's account. They traced the black Ford truck that the shooter reportedly used to flee back to Heald, and as they went to his home, they learned he turned himself in at the Connellsville Police Department's headquarters.
Heald had cuts on his knuckles and blood on his shoes but not his clothing when he surrendered, authorities said, per The Tribune-Review.
The motive behind the shooting, according to authorities: The victim was dating Heald's estranged wife.
"Mr. Heald and [the victim] had had several conversations in the past, whether it be through text or in person," Limani added. "Never had a violent act between the two of them, and it was known that [the victim] was in a relationship with Heald's estranged wife."
The trooper added: "There's other ways to go around and overcome a relationship struggle than to try and take a violent act out on another person."
The shooting victim is expected to make a full recovery, per WPXI.
Heald had a preliminary arraignment that same day. He is scheduled to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 21.