New Kensington man claims self-defense for 2020 shooting in Arnold

A New Kensington man accused in the shooting death of a man inside an Arnold home more than two years ago told a Westmoreland County jury Wednesday that he fired the fatal shots in self-defense.

Mario Matthew Gatti, 33, was the lone defense witness to testify during his two-day trial. He claimed he had no intent to kill 33-year-old Michael Coover of Brackenridge on Jan. 16, 2020.

“I came there to talk this out. I wanted him to stop threatening me, and I didn’t want him to shoot at me anymore,” Gatti testified.

He told jurors that he and Coover had an ongoing disagreement about a $300 debt that Gatti claimed he was owed for the sale of illicit drugs. He claimed Coover had sent him a series of threatening text messages and was responsible for four previous shooting incidents targeting him.

Gatti testified as many as 16 rounds were fired into his New Kensington home in November 2019. A week later, a neighbor’s vehicle was fired at, and he was shot at in a third incident while walking his dog, Gatti told jurors. He claimed he was shot at a fourth time from someone in a vehicle as he was walking on a street before Christmas in 2019.

Gatti said he never reported any of the shootings to the police.

“He had friends with him, and I was hoping it would calm down,” Gatti testified.

But prosecutors say Gatti intended to shoot and kill Coover. Gatti is charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, burglary, a weapons offense and multiple counts of reckless endangerment and making terroristic threats.

Witnesses said Gatti brandished a gun as he entered Coover’s 17th Street home, pushed his girlfriend aside, entered the kitchen and fired two shots at Coover. Prosecutors said Gatti also threatened two women and an infant as he left the residence.

Gatti testified he had a gun in his pocket as he entered the residence and that it accidentally discharged after he slipped on cooking grease that Coover threw on him at the start of the altercation.

“Mike still had a pot in his hand, and he turned like he would hit me with it, so I shot again. I thought he was going to hit me with the pot,” Gatti testified.

Witnesses said Gatti left the home and tossed the weapon into a woman’s vehicle and ordered her to get rid of it.

Sierra Price testified she lived across the street from the shooting scene and was stopped by Gatti, whom she said she had known for years. She said he threw the gun into her vehicle.

“I was confused, so I just drove off,” Price told jurors. “I didn’t know where to go and just turned the corner to get away from him.”

She said she drove a few miles and threw the gun out of the car window.

James Garland Jr., 27, of Harrison’s Natrona neighborhood testified he found the gun sitting in the snow next to the road.

He said he returned home, disassembled the weapon and hid part of it in the ceiling and discarded the barrel and a spring in the Allegheny River.

Prosecutors say Gatti fled after the shooting. He was found by police in April as he sat on a beach near Jacksonville, Fla.

Jacksonville Officer Matthew Morrison said investigators found Gatti on a beach that was closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. They determined he matched the description of a Pennsylvania fugitive who was suspected to be in the area.

Gatti initially gave a false name and produced an identification card but was detained after police found a prescription bottle in his backpack with a woman’s name on it. She later was determined to be his girlfriend.

Gatti was identified through pictures sent to Arnold police, Morrison said.

Closing arguments in Gatti’s trial are scheduled to begin Thursday morning.