Authorities respond to a home in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, after a reported shooting (WTAE/YouTube).
A man returning to the home he shared with his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend saw the woman”s new boyfriend there and shot him dead, according to law enforcement in Pennsylvania.
Richard Jetter, 27, has been charged with criminal homicide, according to Allegheny County court records reviewed by Law&Crime. The victim was identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office as 29-year-old Omar Poole, according to local news website TribLive.
On Monday around midnight, Jetter was at an apartment in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, a borough about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. He had reportedly lived there with a woman for a year, but she said she was “in the process of breaking up” with him and “getting back together” with Poole.
The woman had apparently invited Poole to the apartment earlier that night. Jetter arrived to move “his stuff” out of the residence.
According to the Allegheny County Police Department, an investigation found that Poole was taking food out of a bag from a Sheetz convenience store and putting it in the fridge when Jetter went inside the apartment. The woman said there were “no arguments or speaking” before the shooting, TribLive reported.
Jetter allegedly shot Poole multiple times in the torso and leg. Jetter then called 911, and emergency personnel rushed the victim to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour after the shooting.
Jetter was detained and then reportedly shared his account with authorities.
He said he had been texting the woman on Sunday about picking up his things from the apartment. He reportedly said he didn’t know why the other man was in the apartment but that Poole “was going for his gun.”
The defendant added that “he was defending himself, his home and his daughter,” authorities said, adding that they found the Sheetz bag stained brown and red. Jetter and the woman’s daughter reportedly lived in the apartment, though it is unclear if the girl was there at the time of the shooting.
The woman was apparently not in the room at the time of the shooting.
Detectives spoke with another witness — a neighbor — who reported hearing a man ask after the shooting, “Why is he here?” regional ABC affiliate WTAE reported.
Jetter was booked into the Allegheny County Jail and denied bail. He had a preliminary arraignment on Monday and is due to have a preliminary hearing on Oct. 16.
