PITTSBURGH — A man accused of fatally shooting three police officers will stand trial in October before a jury selected from halfway across the state.

Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning ordered jury selection for Richard Poplawski, 23, to begin Sept. 20 near Harrisburg in Dauphin County because of intense local publicity surrounding the April 4, 2009, shootings.

The trial will begin Oct. 12 in Pittsburgh.

Because the jury will be bused in, Manning ordered the attorneys handling the case to hire co-counsel so the trial won't have to be delayed if an attorney falls ill.

That prompted public defender Lisa Middleman to argue for a later trial date, saying a new attorney would need more time to review more than 75 CDs of statements, photos and videos that could be used as evidence in the case. She called that "grossly unfair" and said the judge was forcing her to "do a hurry-up-and-prepare-defense in this case."

Manning refused, noting the anniversary of the shootings was Sunday.

Manning was expected to rule Tuesday on whether some statements witnesses say Poplawski made could be used against him, but that was thwarted because a detective whom Middleman wanted to testify was unavailable because of a family emergency.

A nurse who previously testified at a pretrial hearing said Poplawski told officers guarding his hospital room, "(Expletive) like you are the reason people like me shoot people like you."

Police say in court papers Poplawski talked on an Internet radio show about a "hit list" that included a black person, a Jew, an ex-girlfriend, her parents, neighbors' pets and a Pittsburgh police officer. Prosecutors contend Poplawski posted comments on white supremacist sites and sent racist e-mails.

Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against Poplawski if he's convicted of killing Pittsburgh officers Paul Sciullo II, Stephen Mayhle and Eric Kelly, when they responded to a disturbance reported by Poplawski's mother. Kelly was black; the other officers were white.