1 arrested, 1 at large in beating of Aliquippa man at VFW lodge
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One man turned himself in Thursday while a second suspect remained at large in connection with the beating of a 52-year-old Aliquippa man inside a Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge.
The family of Preston Coleman III said he was beaten, unprovoked and mercilessly, for nearly 30 minutes late Sunday inside the lodge on Aliquippa’s Penn Avenue.
Coleman of Aliquippa remained hospitalized after being punched nearly 250 times at the lodge, police said. The attack left Coleman with head injuries, brain swelling and bleeding, major fractures in his face and at least three broken ribs.
Coleman’s face and head were so swollen from the beating that surgeons cut a tracheostomy tube into his neck so he could breathe, his daughters told reporters.
“There is no excuse for what happened to my dad,” said Prashauna Coleman, 27, of Aliquippa, whose voice sometimes shook Thursday morning as she read a prepared statement.
As Coleman’s family made their first public comments about the attack, authorities continued searching for the central suspect in the attack — Brett Ours, 39, also of Aliquippa.
Also Thursday, shortly before 2:30 p.m., Ronald Brown, 43, of Ambridge, turned himself in to Aliquippa police and a district judge, court records show.
Brown was charged with three criminal charges — including aggravated assault and liability for the conduct of another person — after, police said, he punched Coleman up to seven times in the midst of the attack.
Brown was arraigned Thursday afternoon and was taken to county jail, according to his attorney, Steven Valsamidis. A judge set Brown’s bail at $100,000.
Valsamidis confirmed to TribLive that Brown is the father of Ireland Brown, who was working as a bartender Sunday night at the lodge. She could not be reached for comment.
The bartender’s role, if any, in the attack, is unclear, Valsamidis said. Further information would be aired at Brown’s preliminary hearing, which is set for Jan. 16.
“It’s important to consider that (Brown) voluntarily appeared and turned himself in,” Valsamidis told TribLive.
Earlier this week, police filed nine criminal charges against Ours, including attempted murder of the first degree, court records show. Ours was not in custody, as of Thursday afternoon.
Three family members, who spoke with reporters at their attorney’s office in Pittsburgh, said that they believe race might have triggered the beating.
Ours and Brown are white. Coleman is Black.
“He was targeted,” said Coleman’s daughter, Taquesha Tucker, 34, of Aliquippa. “He never saw it coming.”
The family said Coleman might have been the only Black man inside the lodge at the time of the attack.
Aliquippa police did not return numerous phone calls and emails Thursday seeking comment. Beaver County District Attorney Nathan Bible could not immediately be reached by phone.
Video footage from VFW Post 3577 on Aliquippa’s Penn Avenue caught much of what unfolded there late Sunday, police said. Graphic violence pervades the criminal complaint against Ours.
At 10:50 p.m., camera footage showed Ours sit down next to Coleman at a bar inside the lodge and begin talking, the complaint said. What he said remains unclear.
Seven minutes later, Ours, apparently without warning, started punching Coleman in the face and head, the complaint said. Coleman tried to escape — unsuccessfully — several times. At one point, Coleman gripped the bar to get off the floor but was unable to stand or defend himself.
Within minutes, police said, Coleman was “barely moving and completely defenseless.”
At one point, about halfway through the attack, Brown repeatedly punched Coleman, according to Valsamidis, Brown’s attorney.
The criminal complaint said Ours held down the victim as Brown punched him about seven times in the head, neck and face.
Ours allegedly asked his girlfriend at one point to give him his knife, footage showed, according to the complaint. She refused. So, Ours started yelling at her, then punched her in the face.
Ours returned to Coleman, bludgeoning him with a bar stool and repeatedly strangling him, the complaint said. He sat on Coleman’s chest and punched him repeatedly in the face and head. according to police.
At 11:17 p.m., Ours paused the attack to remove his shirt, which had become soaked with Coleman’s blood, the complaint said. He then resumed the beating for nearly eight more minutes, kicking Coleman in the head repeatedly.
There were at least three people inside or near the bar at the time of the attack, said attorney Steven Barth, who represents Coleman’s family.
One of the individuals was Brown, his attorney said. The involvement of the other two individuals, if any, was unclear.
People inside the lodge made “multiple phone calls,” but not to 911, Barth said. He did not know Thursday who called police to report the incident.
Records show police “responded to a bar fight call” at the lodge. While en route, a 911 dispatcher said “a male inside the bar is injured and the actor has fled the scene.” Coleman later was taken via helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital.
“It’s unreal,” said Tucker, Coleman’s daughter, who called onlookers or participants at the lodge “cowards.”
“It’s a disgrace,” she said. “And they should be held accountable as well.”
“We are coming for everybody that’s responsible,” Barth added. “There’s nothing that justifies this.”
The family’s statement called on Beaver County’s DA to “file all appropriate criminal charges against anyone who violated the law and contributed to the horrific attack upon my father.”
Many questions continue to cloud the aftermath of the attack.
It was unclear if Coleman, whose father served in the military, was a VFW member and whether membership was required to enter the building. Coleman’s family called him “a regular” at the lodge that stands near their Aliquippa home.
The level of security at the lodge, or who was responsible for that security, also remained unclear.
Nobody answered the phone Thursday at the Aliquippa lodge.
The lodge does have a liquor license for clubs, which was issued April 3, 2024 and is active through June 30, state Liquor Control Board records show.
The post was cited for possessing or operating gambling devices in 2001 and 2019, online records show. For those violations, they paid fines of $500 and $650.
A spokesman for the state police, whose liquor control enforcement staff would handle any pending liquor license infractions, declined comment Thursday.
Multiple VFW leaders, as well as four men whose names were listed on the Aliquippa lodge’s liquor license, did not respond to inquiries. Neither did the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.