Heath Schrecengost

Editor's note: This article has been update to more accurately explain how money from the GoFundMe account will be used.Heath Schrecengost was out late at Millerstown Inn in Chicora celebrating his girlfriend's 21st birthday Saturday night, according to family and friends.As the celebration continued into early Sunday morning, police said that Gary D. Ellenberger, 56, of Chicora walked up to Schrecengost, 27, of Karns City and shot him in the chest from across the bar “with a sawed-off shotgun of some sort.”Schrecengost was taken to UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh in critical condition.The shot damaged his lung, according to Schrecengost's aunt, Nichole Heller of Karns City. Doctors put Schrecengost into an induced coma and he is on life support, she said.When he first arrived at the hospital Sunday, he underwent surgery and received a massive blood transfusion, Heller said. He's since undergone a second surgery and, she said, doctors are hoping to operate on him again Wednesday, to try and begin the recovery process and eventually bring him out of the coma.“He's hanging in there. It's one day at a time,” Heller said Tuesday soon after visiting her nephew at the hospital. “We are very hopeful but the trauma he sustained was severe.”Heller is hoping that the family can raise money through a

GoFundme page to help with Schrecengost's medical and other expenses.

Friends of the family on Tuesday expressed shock and sadness over the shooting.“Schrecengost's family are just average, down-to-earth folks and they don't deserve what happened,” said Donald Scherer, 43, of Chicora.Scherer is a longtime family friend and said his children would often have play dates with Schrecengost's daughter.“He's a good dad and would never hurt anybody,” Scherer said.Heller echoed this sentiment.“That boy never raised his voice. Never got into any conflict,” she said. “He never had a curse for anyone.”Late night outings were also a rare thing for Schrecengost, Heller said.“He's a quiet boy. He didn't go out a lot. He's a homebody. He wasn't a party guy,” she said.Instead, his priorities were focused around raising his daughter, 7-year-old Shayleigh.“His world revolves around his little girl,” she said.Schrecengost works for Folino Construction, an asphalt pavement company in Oakmont, Allegheny County. Before that, he worked at a company in the same industry, his aunt said.

Why he was shot remains a mystery.In court documents filed Monday, state police, who responded to the shooting at Millerstown Inn early Sunday morning, say Schrecengost told a trooper that Ellenberger walked up to him and shot him from across the bar with no provocation.Schrecengost told police that the two don't know each other and hadn't had any encounters with each other that night.Police said witness accounts and video surveillance footage from the bar support Schrecengost's account of the shooting.Ellenberger — who was found not guilty by a jury after being accused in a 2006 shooting at a Chicora bar — is facing charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, and illegal offensive weapons.He was arraigned by District Judge Wayne Seibel Sunday and was denied bail. A preliminary hearing is set for Tuesday, according to online court documents.

As a portrait of Schrecengost emerged Tuesday through the accounts of family and friends, Ellenberger's son spoke for the first time and called his father a troubled and violent man.Travis Ellenberger, 34, of Butler said that when he heard about the shooting, the thing that surprised him most was news that his dad had been arrested alive by police.“I thought he was going to go on a rampage,” the younger Ellenberger said. “When he gets set off, there's no stopping him.”He said that as a child his father would drink massive amounts of alcohol and “chase me out of the house with guns.”“He would lie, steal and cheat,” Ellenberger said. “He's not a good man. I tried to have a regular relationship but you can't. His brain isn't wired right.”Travis Ellenberger has been estranged from his father for the last year because of what he described as his father's violent behavior.Over the years, his father has been incarcerated and was under probation for long stretches of time. Gary Ellenberger's troubles with the law go back at least 12 years, according to court documents. His history includes multiple DUIs, among other offenses.Travis Ellenberger said he witnessed much of this behavior and was always surprised that his father wasn't incarcerated longer.“If the system worked the way it should've, he would've been in jail a long time ago for good,” the younger Ellenberger said. “This would've never happened. He's a very big menace to society and should've never been allowed out (from jail) ever again.”Ellenberger said he is acquainted with Schrecengost and played football with his brother, Jared, at Karns City High.“He (is) a good guy,” Ellenberger said. “He definitely didn't deserve this. I'm praying for Heath. It's a damn shame.”