S.C. man visiting Pittsburgh for furry convention charged in hotel sword attack

A South Carolina man in Pittsburgh for the Anthrocon convention has been charged with attacking a friend with a sword Thursday inside a Downtown hotel room.

Officers were dispatched to the Wyndham Grand Hotel on Commonwealth Place across from Point State Park at 1 a.m. Thursday for reports of a person bleeding in the hallway and screaming for help, a criminal complaint said.

Officers found the victim in the hotel lobby and saw blood on the floor and walls of a room on the fifth floor, the complaint said.

Police arrested Jake O’Leary, 26, of Greenville, S.C., after being told that he was swinging a sword.

Medics reported that the victim had a severe cut splitting her right pinkie finger and damage down to the bone, the complaint said. The victim told medics that she would go to a hospital on her own for stitches.

O’Leary also appeared to be injured, with a scratch or bruise to his right cheek.

A witness told police that he, the victim and another man were in Pittsburgh for the annual furry convention taking place Downtown, the complaint said.

The witness told officers the group had planned to arrive Thursday, but O’Leary, who is a friend of theirs, asked them to come a day early and stay in his hotel room until the group’s room was ready, the complaint said.

The group was getting ready to go to bed about 1 a.m. when the witness told police he heard O’Leary yell, “Allah does not approve,” leave the bed and grab a large, black sword. O’Leary began “wildly swinging” it at the victim, the complaint said.

The victim shielded herself, the complaint said, and O’Leary struck her multiple times before the other two men could intervene, the complaint said.

Another witness told police that he saw the victim “on top” of O’Leary and that he thought she was trying to “cuddle” O’Leary before the assault began, the complaint said.

The victim told police that she and O’Leary had briefly dated over the winter but were now just friends.

Police charged O’Leary with aggravated assault.

He was unable to post $25,000 bail and is currently being held at the Allegheny County Jail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled July 15 at Pittsburgh Municipal Court.