Ex-cop likely to argue self-defense in fatal shooting at Bloomfield bar, attorney says

Two friends were drinking in a Bloomfield bar when a perceived slight turned into a brawl. Within minutes, gunshots and smoke filled the tiny bar: one man was dead, and a former Pittsburgh police officer returned to his barstool to await arrest by his former colleagues.

Kenneth Farnan's murder trial will begin Tuesday morning. Farnan, 53, of Lawrenceville is accused of shooting and killing Shawn Evans, 56, inside Condrin's Tavern early Sept. 8, 2013.

Farnan joined the Pittsburgh police in 1994, but had been off duty collecting worker's compensation since 2010 after being injured in a Hill District car crash. He officially retired a few weeks after the shooting.

Investigators said Farnan started drinking at the Torley Street bar about 9 p.m., and was joined by Evans, whose wife and brother-in-law own the bar, about an hour later. Neighbors and relatives said the two had been friends for more than 20 years.

By 2:30 a.m., a fight broke out over Evans allegedly hitting Farnan's head as he rested it on the bar. Another patron, a retired detective, broke it up, but the fight rekindled when Evans grabbed Farnan to show him a bite mark on his arm. The bartender told police the men fell to the ground, and Farnan shot Evans six or seven times before getting up and returning to his barstool.

“This is probably going to be a self-defense case, and we have to decide what Mr. Evans had to do with the situation he found himself in,” defense attorney Patrick Allen Sweeney said while arguing pre-trial motions before Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos on Monday. “This was a fight between two individuals that ended in gunfire — who was the aggressor? Who was getting the better of whom?”

Sweeney sought to include evidence that Evans had traces of cocaine in his blood and urine at the time of the shooting, but Rangos said he'd have to find an expert to rebut the prosecution's argument that there was too little of the drug in his system to have any effect.

He planned to have an expert on police training and use of force testify on what kind of training Farnan would have had as a cop and ex-Marine. Expert John C. Leonard wrote a report for Sweeney noting Evans was 6 inches taller and nearly 50 pounds heavier than Farnan, who was coping with long-term injuries to his neck and shoulder.

Rangos said she'd allow Leonard to testify to the training Farnan had, but he couldn't speculate why Farnan shot Evans or why he shot him six times — the jury would have to weigh whether that was evidence of malice or just how Farnan was trained.

“You can't speculate as to why certain decisions were made by a man, in a bar, who's been drinking,” Rangos said.

Farnan appeared in court Monday, but did not speak. He has been free on $50,000 bail since the week of the shooting.

Matthew Santoni is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.