Ex-Pittsburgh officer charged with murder in friend's shooting death says he tried to take his gun

Former police Officer Kenneth Farnan said longtime friend Shawn Evans was trying to steal his gun when he wrested the weapon back and shot Evans six times in a 2013 Bloomfield bar fight, but prosecutors Wednesday said that didn't make sense.

Farnan, 53, took the stand to tell his side of the story at his trial in the shooting of Evans, 56, inside Condrin's Tavern in the early-morning hours of Sept. 8, 2013. He claimed that after an earlier scuffle with Evans at closing time, Evans attacked him again and had him trapped in a small area at the bar's front.

“I couldn't retreat nowhere. I was stuck in that little area, and the door was locked,” Farnan said. “If I could've gone out that door, I would have. I wouldn't be sitting here in the hot seat, and he'd be alive today.”

Farnan and attorney Patrick Sweeney argued that Farnan acted in self-defense and followed his training as a Marine veteran and former Pittsburgh police officer when he drew his gun and killed Evans out of fear for his life. Testimony and closing arguments ended Wednesday afternoon; the jury will begin deliberations Thursday morning.

During his testimony, Farnan stepped down from the witness stand to pantomime with Sweeney how he said Evans put him in a headlock with his left arm, while his right arm was yanking on his gun holster and belt.

“Police officers don't give up their weapons. Military men don't give up their weapons,” Farnan said. “You never let yourself be disarmed because you could be dead, or a civilian could be dead.”

Farnan's version of the fight included Evans throwing him into the doorjamb, repeatedly lifting him and slamming him to the floor, striking Farnan's arm to get him to release his grip on the bar and saying aloud that he was going to take Farnan's gun.

Deputy District Attorney Janet Necessary, though, said in her closing argument that his version didn't match bartender Janetta Bordas' testimony Tuesday that the two men fell to the floor and out of sight from where she stood behind the bar, within 20 to 30 seconds of the fatal gunfire.

Necessary also questioned how Farnan was able to reach behind his back to wrest the gun away from the supposedly larger, stronger man or whether he had truly been following his police and military training when he opened fire in a small, occupied area, failed to check Evans for vital signs and returned to his bar stool without calling for help after the shooting.

She said Farnan had been so drunk that he was nodding off at the bar — a prod or slap to his head started the first fight with Evans — but he claimed he was able to rationally decide he had no choice but to shoot Evans a few minutes later. Necessary noted that Farnan had never fired his gun on another person in nearly two decades as a police officer.

“The only time he fires his gun is when he's extremely intoxicated and, I submit, out of control,” she told the jury. “This was a bar fight, and it should have been nothing more than that. It shouldn't have resulted in the death of a human being, but the fact that it did was the defendant's fault.”

Matthew Santoni is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-391-0927 or msantoni@tribweb.com.