On New Year’s Eve 2013, 62-year-old Frank S. Petro was shot and killed inside Frank’s Gun & Taxidermy Shop in Tunnelton, Saltsburg. Authorities found Petro deceased from multiple gunshot wounds; another man at the scene, 43-year-old Jack Edmundson Jr., suffered a gunshot wound to the leg.

Investigators say Edmundson initially claimed Petro shot him and he returned fire in self-defense. Prosecutors later charged Edmundson on January 1, 2014 with homicide, attempted arson, and aggravated assault, alleging an extortion scheme in which Edmundson posed as an undercover detective and pressured Petro for more than $120,000 to make an illegal-lottery investigation disappear. Surveillance footage is reported to show Edmundson taking a pistol from a display case, shooting Petro, then spreading gunpowder and an accelerant in an apparent attempt to start a fire; a struggle followed during which Petro was shot at least twice more.

Edmundson was treated for a leg wound at a Pittsburgh hospital and, while awaiting trial, faced an attempted-escape charge in January 2015 after an alleged effort to saw through a jail cell bar. The District Attorney’s office announced it would seek the death penalty in the Petro case.

Did anyone in the area have dealings with Petro or information about the alleged extortion scheme?