Additional charges were filed Friday against a Pittsburgh man accused of shooting a Robinson Township motel clerk to death, injuring a woman in an earlier shooting on the same property and then wounding a police officer in a shootout in the East Hills a week ago.
Stanley Eugene West, 37, originally was charged with criminal homicide, attempted homicide and recklessly endangering another person following the Oct. 3 incident, which unfolded at the Pittsburgh Motel on Robinson Pike and ended 15 miles away.
The criminal complaint filed Friday in Magistrate District Court by the Pennsylvania State Police adds two counts of attempted criminal homicide tied to the shootout with police as well as two counts of assault of a law enforcement officer and two counts of aggravated assault.
West is accused of gunning down motel clerk Rakesh Bhagavan when the latter was standing outside his office following an earlier shooting inside the motel parking lot. According to a criminal complaint, West shot inside a car occupied by a woman and her child while the woman was attempting to flee from the motel parking lot.
The woman made it out of the parking lot and drove to a nearby businesses seeking medical help, and she was taken to Presbyterian Hospital for treatment. Her child was not injured.
According to the complaint, West then walked back to the motel property, where he confronted Bhagavan and shot him in the head. West then “nonchalantly” walked to a U-Haul van that was parked outside a motel unit where he had been staying, according to the complaint.
West then drove the van to the East Hills section of Pittsburgh. According to the criminal complaint filed Friday, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Bureau of Police officers found the van West had been driving in a parking lot of a housing complex in front of 2219 Wilner Drive.
According to the complaint, detectives and officers from both departments tried to contact West but he emerged from the van and took a shooting position next to the vehicle. West then went to the ground.
According to the complaint, footage from an officer’s body camera showed a police officer ordering West to show his hands. He raised his hands outward toward the officer, and then several shots were fired, the complaint states. A black pistol was seen on the ground next to where West fell after being struck by gunfire.
The officer who gave West the verbal order to show his hands was injured and required hospitalization, as did West. The officer was released from the hospital within 24 hours. West was listed in stable condition Thursday, but no update was available Friday.
According to the complaint, investigators interviewed a witness who was seated in a car near Wilner Drive when police vehicles arrived. The witness told investigators that officers identified themselves and ordered West to stop. The witness told officers that he/she observed West fire his pistol at officers and then heard more gunfire.
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