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.”
This may have been true until around 5:10 p.m. Wednesday.
That’s when Allegheny County Police say Niko Hostler shot his manager, Chris Ashbaugh, about 10 times on School Street outside Oaks Auto and Truck Service, where they both worked.
Police say Hostler, 32, of Verona, killed Ashbaugh, 53, over a work dispute that had escalated into a physical altercation.
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 happened.
She stayed in 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 around turnpike mile marker 61 westbound — 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 coworker, not realizing the coworker 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 9mm 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 showed Hostler continued 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 — 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 offices in Cheswick declined to comment.
Hostler was denied bail and remains in Allegheny County Jail. He did not have an attorney listed on court documents.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 3.