Jan 19, 2024 By Mike Jones 4 min read

The man accused of shooting into the Main Street Tavern in Monongahela last month following an argument inside the bar told the customers he was going to “gut” them all before he returned with his rifle and allegedly fired multiple shots into the building.

Jonathan James Toth entered the bar at 225 Main St. in the city’s business district about 12:30 a.m. Dec. 23 with his wife and stepdaughter before ordering his group a round of drinks, according to testimony Thursday at his preliminary hearing in Washington County Central Court.

His wife, who was not identified during the hearing, apparently went over to a nearby pool table when someone playing billiards called her a derogatory name, according to testimony. John Brice, who was a customer in the bar seated away from the pool table at the time, said that started an argument, prompting Toth to go over to the other customers.

“That’s when it started escalating,” Brice said. “He started getting all amped up. Just aggravated, irritated.”

Brice had met Toth before, he said, so he tried to ease tensions by escorting him and the two women out the back door in order to diffuse the situation while bartender Cassandra Grant closed the bar due to the commotion. Brice thought things had calmed down after getting Toth outside, but some of the other customers came out behind him and Toth apparently pulled a knife from his vehicle.

While Brice pulled Toth back away from the group, Grant testified that she heard Toth threaten them while wielding the knife.

“At some point, he said was going to gut us all,” Grant testified.

Brice was able to get Toth in the vehicle and get him to leave, while the customers went back into the bar to finish their drinks and game of pool. About 15 minutes later, though, several gunshots came through the back door, with shrapnel striking Brice in his glasses.

“We all got down,” Brice said of the seven people inside the bar as the shots rang out.

Monongahela police Officer Dana Harris heard the gunshots as she and another patrolman were dispatched to the scene. The other patrolman, identified only as Officer McCarthy, came upon Toth in his vehicle behind the bar and fired one shot when the driver backed up, Harris testified. With police chasing him, Toth drove away on Route 136 and crossed a bridge over the Monongahela River into Allegheny County before stopping. Harris said Toth fell out of the vehicle and appeared to have a gunshot wound.

State police Sgt. Daniel Barnhart, who is based at the barracks near Uniontown, was called to investigate the incident since it involved a police officer shooting a suspect. He testified that he interviewed Toth at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh three days after the incident, and the suspect admitted to him that he fired five shots with his .22-caliber rifle.

Barnhart said one of the bullets struck a parked vehicle and three or four others made it inside the bar. Barnhart said Toth told him that when he saw police officers arrive, he put his rifle in his vehicle and waited for them to tell him what to do next. Toth told the investigator that he heard “freeze” or “police” and was simultaneously shot, prompting him to drive off.

Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh noted that Toth drove the two women he was with home following the initial argument before retrieving his rifle and coming back to fire the shots, which Walsh said showed his intent to hurt the customers inside. Toth’s public defender, Rose Semple, argued that her client never intended to kill anyone despite allegedly firing his weapon into an occupied structure.

After hearing testimony for about an hour, District Judge Mark Wilson ordered Toth to stand trial on all charges, which include seven counts each of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, four charges of firing into an occupied structure and one count each of prohibited possession of a firearm and fleeing police.

Toth, 49, of Jefferson Hills, attended the hearing in the Washington County Courthouse while shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. He is being held without bond at the Washington County jail.