Seven months after gunshots peppered a Butler home with five people inside, city police charged the alleged shooter.

Michael Lee Hutchinson, 24, of Butler, is accused of nearly two dozen felonies, including five counts of attempted homicide in the Feb. 17 shooting on the 800 block of West Penn Street.

Police secured an arrest warrant Monday for Hutchinson, who already was in the Armstrong County Jail in connection with an unrelated robbery.

District Judge William Fullerton video arraigned the defendant on five counts each of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, six counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure and a charge of felons not to possess firearms, all felonies.

Additionally, he was arraigned on five misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7. Bond in the case was denied due to the nature of the charges.

Gunshot residue evidence and good old-fashioned police work apparently proved key in solving the case.

Butler Police Chief Bob O'Neill specifically praised the lead investigator, Lt. David Villotti.

“It was good work by Lt. Villotti,” he said, “and the officers that assisted in the investigation.”

Despite the time it took to charge Hutchinson, city detectives identified him as a suspect early on in the investigation.

Hutchinson, a convicted drug felon, apparently had a past disagreement with one of the occupants in the house, investigators said, which could have been a motive.

But Hutchinson denied the shooting, according to police.

Three adults and two young children were in the two-story rental home when gunfire erupted shortly after 11:15 p.m.

A 30-year-old woman and her two children — an infant and a 7-year-old — were living there at the time. They were there along with the woman's then 34-year-old boyfriend and a 63-year-old man.

A neighbor-turned-eyewitness told police that he was awakened by the shots and stepped onto his front porch to see what was going on. He reported seeing a man wearing a hooded sweat shirt running nearby.

Police subsequently found six bullet holes in the house, one slug in the dining room and five shell casings from a .40-caliber handgun around the home.

Police noticed something else — fresh shoe prints in the snow — between the targeted house and neighboring homes.

It didn't take long for Hutchinson's name to come up in the investigation. A neighbor looked at the shoe prints and told police it appeared they belonged to shoes the defendant wore.

Villotti, then a detective, conducted an internet search and matched the impressions in the snow to a pair of Nike athletic shoes. The prints looked like they were from a size 10 or so shoe.

Police brought Hutchinson in for an interview Feb. 18, less than 16 hours after the shooting. According to police, he claimed he was with his girlfriend at another couple's home in Butler at the time of the shooting. He denied he was involved, telling police he “does not mess with guns.”

Hutchinson admitted having a “problem” with the younger man at the house, but told authorities there was “no longer a problem between them,” according to charging documents.

While talking to the suspect, police said, Villotti noticed Hutchinson wearing Nike shoes. Hutchinson told Villotti they were size 10.

Police obtained a search warrant to swab the defendant's hands and clothing, which was collected during their investigation.

That evidence, along with the recovered shell casings, was eventually sent to the state police crime lab in Westmoreland County for testing. Police said they never recovered the gun used in the shooting.

Investigators received the lab report in late June which showed gunshot residue on a black sweatshirt Hutchinson was wearing the night of the shooting.

But before that, detectives were allegedly able to break the alibi that Hutchinson had given them during his interview.

Online court records did not list an attorney for him.

Hutchinson has been in the Armstrong County Jail since Aug. 27 after state police arrested him for the suspected ambush robbery of a 21-year-old man in Parker.