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Coroner rules Hazleton victim died from single gunshot wound, with manner of death homicide.
Pujols
HAZLETON – Autopsy results on a man shot to death outside a city bar early Saturday morning are expected to lead to homicide charges against the alleged shooter later this week, police announced on Sunday.
City police identified the fatal shooting victim as Yeury Manuel Colon, 25, of 118 Webster Ave., West Hazleton.
Luzerne County Coroner John Corcoran said an autopsy conducted by Dr. Mary Pascucci on Sunday morning determined that the cause of Colon’s death was a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. The manner of death was homicide.
The Hazleton City Police Criminal Investigation Unit, Luzerne County detectives and the state police Records and Identification Unit continue to investigate the incident that took Colon’s life and seriously injured Luis Perez-Rodriguez, 23, of Hazleton.
Johan M. Pujols, 22, of 929 W. 1st St., Hazleton, was charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault related to the shooting of Perez-Rodriguez.
According to court papers:
Pujols allegedly shot Perez-Rodriguez multiple times with a Bersa Firestorm .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun during a dispute outside of Club 570 on Stockton Road just before 2:30 a.m., police said.
A witness told police Pujols was attacked by at least three people, two of them being the shooting victims, before he produced the handgun and started shooting, the criminal complaint states.
Perez-Rodriguez is being treated for gunshot injuries to his leg and stomach and remains in intensive care at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township.
The witness, whom police identified as Edwin Leon, told police he drove Pujols to Hazleton General Hospital, which is less than a quarter mile from the bar. Pujols apparently suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his left wrist during the incident. Leon also told police the gun Pujols used was still in the car.
City detectives reviewed video surveillance footage from the hospital parking lot and lobby and saw three cars pull into the parking lot at the same time – about 2:28 a.m. The outside video showed several people running into the emergency room doorway as emergency room staff went outside to assist.
Detectives saw Pujols walk into the emergency room lobby holding his arm, and then saw a second male, later identified as Perez-Rodriguez, walk into the lobby with several males helping him. Police used the video to identify Pujols’ Nissan Maxima and secured search warrants for his car, his home and his place of business – Pujols’s Pawn Shop, at the corner of 3rd and Alter streets in Hazleton.
Police found the box to the Bersa Firestorm at the pawn shop and the semi-automatic handgun in Pujols’ car. The gun was registered to Pujols, police said.
Pujols was arraigned on the assault charges by District Judge Daniel O’Donnell in Sugarloaf Township. He is jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $75,000 straight bail. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday before District Judge Joseph D. Zola of Hazleton.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Hazleton City Police at (570) 459-4940.