As many as 100 people crowded inside a Penn Hills hookah bar when gunfire erupted, killing two people, police said Tuesday.

Nathaniel Smiley Jr., 44, of Pittsburgh got into an altercation with an unknown man around 2:50 a.m. at Ballers Hookah Lounge and Cigar Bar, Allegheny County Police Lt. Venerando Costa said.

During the altercation, two or more people fired shots, Costa said. It is unclear if the men in the argument fired a gun; about seven to 10 shots in total were fired from handguns.

Police recovered no guns at the scene.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office pronounced Smiley dead at 3 a.m. Stephanie Stuart, a 28-year-old McKeesport woman also in the bar that night, was pronounced dead a minute before Smiley.

“What actually happened inside is still unclear,” Costa told reporters Tuesday. “We want to talk with everyone who was inside at the time of the shooting.”

Crowd estimates that night at the Laketon Road bar range between 50 and 100 patrons, Costa said. The bar has outdoor cameras, but police said no videos show the shooting.

The bar operators, who police did not name, are cooperating with authorities, Costa said.

The bar was operating without a liquor license, authorities said Monday. Costa called Ballers an “after-hours establishment,” which typically would have been busy after 1 a.m.

Though there was no “established age limit” at the bar, most patrons that night were older than 30, he said.

Four men and three women, who police also did not name, were injured in the Sunday shooting, Costa said. All of them are expected to survive.

“Two people were killed over an argument that occurred inside a bar,” Costa said. “And there’s no indication right now that the victims started the argument.”

Costa forwarded questions on Tuesday about alcohol to the District Attorney’s Office.

State Liquor Control Board spokesman Shawn Kelly confirmed the Penn Hills bar wasn’t licensed by the agency.

“In order to legally dispense alcohol in Pennsylvania, an establishment must be licensed,” Kelly said.

State police’s Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement also is investigating the license issue, a spokesman in their Harrisburg offices confirmed on Tuesday.

The bar, which sits near Frankstown Road, is located in what has long been known as the Laketon Professional Building 2.

Laketon Professional Buildings 1 and 2 have been owned by a limited liability corporation, Bucci Ventura Mullen, since November 2022, according to Allegheny County real estate records.

Anthony Bucci co-founded a staffing agency whose website lists the same Morningside address as that LLC, Department of State records show. Bucci did not reply to an email or phone calls Tuesday seeking comment.

Penn Hills police had responded to the bar for two recent shootings, but they were not fatal, according to county police.

Penn Hills police and Penn Hills Mayor Pauline Calabrese did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)