Homicide charge heads to court in New Kensington tattoo studio shooting
Jamie Lynn Simon testified Thursday she heard a gunshot and saw New Kensington tattoo shop owner Kevin Croney slowly throw his hands up to his face before toppling over backward.
Simon was the only witness in Christopher Scott Patterson's preliminary hearing regarding Croney's death on March 13.
Simon was pumping gas at a Sunoco station next to Croney's True Image Tattoo Studio that afternoon when she heard someone shout, “Cut it out!”
She looked up to see Croney and a man she later learned was Patterson in a shoving match behind the studio.
The tussle “seemed to stop,” she testified, “and the men backed up” for a moment.
Then Patterson, 44, of 133 1⁄2 Hamilton Ave., Vandergrift, “took a couple of steps” toward Croney, “pulled out a gun and shot him,” she testified.
Croney was shot in the head from about 4 feet away.
In the 20-minute hearing, defense attorney Patrick J. Tomassey insisted Patterson and Croney were friends who argued and got into the shoving match.
Tomassey said a “second gun” was found where Croney died and implied that Patterson shot his friend in self-defense.
Tomassey argued that Patterson should face manslaughter or even involuntary manslaughter charges, not homicide, and urged District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. to reduce the charge.
Pallone, however, ruled there was enough evidence to hold the homicide charge against Patterson for court. The defendant was returned to the Westmoreland County jail, where he is being held without bail.
Outside the courtroom, Croney's widow, Cheri, thanked everyone who helped her and the couple's three children in the wake of the shooting.
“The first responders were great, the girl who gave up her shirt, and the nurse was tremendous,” she said. “I'm asking everyone not even to mention the name” of the suspect, but instead to “focus on the positive” in life.
“Hate is wasted emotion,” she said.
“I just want justice for Kevin,” she said, adding, “Life will never be the same” for the couple's three children and Croney's 18-year-old from a previous relationship.
Cheri Croney has formed the Kevin Croney Foundation to help nonprofits and other groups. A fundraiser is soon planned for New Kensington-based Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley.
After the hearing, Tomassey said the case is a sad consequence of “too many guns” in society.
“Here were two friends who got into an argument. They both had guns. Without guns, there would have been a fistfight, and they both go home,” Tomassey said.
Cheri Croney said her husband had a permit to carry a handgun, which he owned because he runs a business and took money from Parnassus to the bank.
“The (defense) attorney tried to make it sound like it was Kevin's fault. It wasn't,” she said.
There was no other testimony at Patterson's hearing about Croney pointing a gun at Patterson, and there is no mention of Croney's gun in the police report about the shooting.
Chuck Biedka is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-226-4711 or cbiedka@tribweb.com.
