Dec 20, 2013 2 min read

A Belle Vernon man has been charged with attacking another man and beating his head off the pavement outside a convenience store in Monongahela.

Richard S. Sluk, 21, of 445 Gallatin Road, Belle Vernon, was arraigned Thursday by District Judge Mark Wilson on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, harassment, reckless endangerment, public drunkenness and disorderly conduct filed by Monongahela police.

Police said that Sluk and two of his friends stopped at the Sheetz convenience store on East Main Street about 3:10 a.m. Dec. 8. While he was inside the store, Sluk and his friends exchanged words with another group of men. One man walked outside and Sluk followed.

The two men then became involved in a fight. Surveillance video from the store shows the victim, Shane E. Jenkins, walk away from Sluk, and Sluk run up behind Jenkins and punch him in the back of the head, police said.

Sluk then grabbed Jenkins and slammed his head off the pavement, police said.

The video then shows Sluk’s friends pull him off Jenkins and the trio leave the area. Police said Jenkins was left lying unconscious on the ground for several minutes before he awoke.

Jenkins refused to be transported to an area hospital. He was later taken to Jefferson Regional Medical Center by a family member, where it was determined he suffered from brain trauma, police said. He was than transferred to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh for bleeding in the brain and a skull fracture, police said.

Carroll Township police later stopped the vehicle Sluk was in.

Two of the vehicle occupants admitted that the group had been drinking earlier in the night, police said.

Sluk remains in Washington County jail on $25,000 bond.