A teenager charged with attempted homicide admitted to Butler police that he shot a 20-year-old man at a West Brady Street apartment early Monday morning, authorities said.

However, 19-year-old Jase William Charlton left unanswered many questions in making his alleged confession, primarily why he shot Brandon Fairtrace, according to court documents.

Police on Tuesday arrested Charlton, who has no known address. He was to be arraigned this morning on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, all felonies.

He is in the Butler County Prison.

But despite the arrest, police Capt. David Dalcamo stressed that the investigation is not completed.

“The investigation is continuing into whether there were others involved and/or assisted in the crime,” Dalcamo said this morning.

Charlton is accused of firing a shotgun round into Fairtrace’s head and face. Police believe he shot through the bedroom window of Fairtrace’s first-floor apartment.

Critically injured, Fairtrace was eventually flown by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital. He was last listed Tuesday in stable condition at UPMC Presbyterian, police said.

While police have not identified a motive in the shooting, the investigation revealed that Charlton and Fairtrace are in rival groups of friends who in recent weeks had been arguing and fighting.

Fairtrace’s girlfriend told investigators that the victim several weeks earlier had been jumped by several others on West Jefferson Street in the city, according to court documents.

But a friend of Charlton’s gave a different account, claiming six to eight associates in Fairtrace’s group Sunday had accosted and beaten Charlton and another friend while they were walking near Jefferson and Cunningham streets.

During that altercation, Charlton’s friend was purportedly slashed on the side of his head and ear with a knife, a police affidavit said.

Charlton fled and later showed up at the home of a friend. That friend recounted that Charlton was “extremely agitated by the altercation,” documents said.

A few hours later, at Fairtrace’s apartment in the 200 block of West Brady Street, his girlfriend told investigators that she was awakened by a “loud explosion.”

She turned and looked at Fairtrace, who was covered in blood. He asked her what happened, documents said.

The woman also noticed a hole in the bedroom window.

She gave Fairtrace first-aid and drove him to Butler Memorial Hospital. A medical staffer just after 4 a.m. notified police of the shooting victim.

Due to the seriousness of his injuries, Fairtrace was transferred to UPMC Presbyterian. Investigators as of Tuesday still had not spoken to him.

Officers got to Fairtrace’s apartment and found a bloody crime scene. They also found a window, with a hole broken in the lower half, on the east side of the building.

Police believe the gun was fired through that window, which provides a view of the bed, documents said. Investigators also recovered dozens of shotgun pellets on the bedding and floor.

Soon after Dalcamo, the lead investigator, got back to the station and started getting telephone calls from people claiming to know the shooter. Charlton’s name was mentioned more than once.

He quickly rose to the top of the suspect list after police spoke to a couple of his friends who claimed he had shown up at their home between 4 and 5 a.m. Monday, acknowledging he had shot Fairtrace “through the window,” documents said.

One of the friends to whom Charlton allegedly confessed, went to the police station several hours later and provided a written statement of her conversation with the defendant.

Police fanned out looking for the suspect but they would not find him until about 3 p.m. Tuesday. Dalcamo interviewed him at the station.

Soon after the video-recorded session started, Charlton took off one shoe, reached into his sock and pulled out a live shotgun shell.

He did the same with the other shoe and sock, this time pulling out a spent shotgun shell, documents said.

“(Charlton) stated that is all the evidence you need,” Dalcamo said in his affidavit filed in the criminal complaint.

The suspect implied the spent shell was the round he used in the shooting.

“I then asked him who shot Brandon Fairtrace,” Dalcamo said. “Charlton then stated that he did.”

He claimed the shotgun was his and that he had found it in the woods, but he refused to provide his account of the shooting and other details.

Charlton eventually asked to speak to an attorney but not before agreeing to show Dalcamo where he hid the gun after the shooting, documents said.

He led the investigator on North Washington Street to several garbage cans, the supposed hiding spot. But the search did not yield the gun.

Charlton told Dalcamo that someone must have taken it.