Stabbing suspect arrested
Butler police arrested a man accused of stabbing his roommate in the chest during an argument early Wednesday morning at their apartment in the 400 block of West New Castle Street.
Steven D. Pintell, 24, was booked on aggravated assault and reckless endangerment charges and is in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail.
Pintell is charged with knifing 31-year-old Daniel Gerard, who was flown by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh trauma center.
Gerard, who suffered life-threatening injuries, was stabbed in the upper left chest with a 6-inch kitchen knife, police said.
No condition information from Allegheny General Hospital was available this morning.
The stabbing occurred about 3 a.m. in an apartment building across from the Broad Street Elementary School. Officers got there and spotted Pintell sitting in the building’s front courtyard.
“He stated that his friend Dan had been stabbed and he was the one who stabbed him,” according to court documents.
Police immediately seized a broken, blood-covered knife that was on the ground about 10 feet from the suspect.
Officers went into the apartment and secured the crime scene, investigators said.
Gerard was in a chair and covered in “a tremendous amount of blood coming from his mouth,” documents said. His pants, chest and arms were also blood soaked.
Additionally, police found blood splatter on a coffee table and a blood trail leading to the kitchen.
A Butler Ambulance Service crew arrived a short time later and began emergency first aid.
Pintell told investigators that he and Gerard were arguing when his roommate punched and strangled him. He said he went into the kitchen. Gerard followed him and asked, “What ... are you gonna stab me?” according to a police affidavit.
Pintell picked up the knife that was in a dish rack and allegedly stabbed Gerard one time.
Police spoke to a neighbor, who recounted seeing the defendant run out of the apartment with the knife and saying he had just stabbed Gerard.
The victim was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital before being flown to AGH.
District Judge Dave Kovach later arraigned Pintell, who is a two-time felon with convictions for drug possession and theft, according to county court records.
