Jen Neumann stood over a sun-baked blood stain in an alley about a block away from her Springdale Township home Thursday morning.
“It’s quiet here,” she said. “Nothing happens.”
That may have been true until around 5:10 p.m. Wednesday.
That’s when, Allegheny County police said, Niko Hostler shot his manager, Chris Ashbaugh, about 10 times on School Street outside Oaks Auto and Truck Service, where they both worked.
Police said Hostler, 32, of Verona, killed Ashbaugh, 53, over a work dispute that had escalated into a physical altercation.
Hostler is charged with homicide.
Neumann said she was making her family a spaghetti dinner at the time. Occupied in the kitchen, she didn’t hear the gunshots.
But as police and emergency responders flooded her small neighborhood in the Harwick section of the township, her husband and daughter stood nearby to see what had happened.
She stayed inside Wednesday, but curiosity got the better of her Thursday morning.
“It sucks,” she said matter-of-factly as she stood at the scene.
The altercation began after Ashbaugh assigned Hostler to a tow call on the Pennsylvania Turnpike — somewhere around Murrysville and Penn Township — with a little less than an hour left on his shift, according to a criminal complaint filed against Hostler.
Angered by the late call, Hostler made an insulting comment about Ashbaugh to a co-worker, not realizing the co-worker was on the phone with Ashbaugh, the complaint said.
Ashbaugh drove his truck to Hostler soon after, and the two began pushing and arguing, the complaint said.
After they briefly jumped back into their trucks before exiting again, police said, Ashbaugh punched Hostler in the head and attempted to punch him a second time.
“Hostler said he did not know if (Ashbaugh) had a knife or a gun, and he did not know what (Ashbaugh’s) intentions were,” the complaint said. “Hostler said he was in fear for his life and he pulled out his Springfield 9 mm and started firing in self-defense.”
Ashbaugh was hit multiple times in the arm, back, torso and leg, the complaint said.
Police said surveillance footage shows Hostler continuing to shoot Ashbaugh after he fell to the ground.
The two had argued in the past, the complaint said, but things had never become physical.
Amanda Mattern said she was sitting on the porch of her School Street home when she heard the two men begin to argue.
After a brief reprieve — during which she thought things might have cooled down — Mattern said she heard several gunshots ring out.
Soon after, she heard Ashbaugh asking for help, she said.
Mattern called 911, but the gunshots dissuaded her from going to the scene.
Emergency responders arrived within minutes and stayed on scene until around 8:30 p.m., she said.
Though she couldn’t see his face, Mattern said, she saw Hostler taken away in handcuffs.
She has lived in the neighborhood for more than a decade, she said, and there had never been any trouble at the towing facility before.
She often waves to the drivers.
“I just wish that it turned out better,” Mattern said.
Employees at the Oaks Auto offices in Cheswick declined to comment.
Hostler was denied bail and remains in the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh. He did not have an attorney listed in court documents.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 3.