Background: The Planet Fitness at Crossroads Plaza in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania (Google Maps). Inset: Steven Heald (Pennsylvania State Police).
More details have been revealed in the case of a Pennsylvania man accused of shooting his estranged wife's new boyfriend as the victim emerged from an afternoon workout.
Steven Heald, 38, has been charged with attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and misdemeanor stalking, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime. He appeared in Westmoreland County court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing in which startling details about the alleged attack came to light.
On Jan. 13, at about noon, 45-year-old Joshua Logan emerged from the Planet Fitness at Crossroads Plaza in East Huntingdon Township — which is located just southeast of Pittsburgh — and headed for his pickup truck in the parking lot, The Tribune-Review reported. Suddenly, Logan testified on Wednesday, a man pulled up in his own truck and said, "You got a problem?" before opening fire from the driver's seat.
The Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office maintains that the shooter was Heald, and he is believed to have shot the victim in the shoulder, buttocks, hip, and thigh. Logan was reportedly thrown to the ground in front of the gym's entrance, with Heald allegedly using a handgun to pistol-whip and punch him in the head 15 to 20 times.
Logan — his arm in a sling — recalled from court, "I was bleeding out and I said 'You're killing me,' and he said, 'Now you get it,'" according to the regional outlet.
It apparently wasn't just the shooting victim who believed he might die, but authorities, too. As Heald reportedly got in his black Ford truck and drove away, other members of the gym saw the wounded man and rushed to his aid. One of them was a nurse, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani told Pittsburgh-based NBC affiliate WPXI.
"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.
First responders arrived at the scene and helped transport Logan to a nearby hospital, the district attorney's office said. He reportedly identified Heald as his attacker, and the suspect later turned himself in to police.
It apparently did not take long for authorities to identify a likely motive. According to investigators, Logan 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 when talking to reporters. "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."
According to The Tribune-Review, Heald and Logan had spoken twice face-to-face and also texted each other in the five months that Logan had been dating the woman. On the day of the shooting, Logan had strayed from his normal morning gym routine, and Heald said he went to the gym looking for Logan and saw his truck, troopers added.
Heald is being held on $500,000 bail; he has a formal arraignment scheduled for March 18.
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