Timothy B. Maxon Jr., a 50-year-old White male, was fatally shot after a late-night confrontation with a co-worker in Kennedy Township, Pennsylvania, near Coraopolis. Online reports identify Maxon as an Eighty Four resident and say the shooting happened at a home on Kenridge Drive where he and 23-year-old Deon Wells worked as residential program workers caring for adults with intellectual disabilities.
The confrontation unfolded around 11 p.m. on August 4, 2017, as the two men were working their regular 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. overnight shift. According to police accounts cited in news reports, Wells said Maxon came to work agitated, cursed at him, and continued arguing. Wells told investigators he tried to get away from the dispute by going outside to the driveway, where his vehicle was parked, but said Maxon followed him and got in his face again.
Wells told police he sat in the passenger seat of his car with the door open while the argument continued. He said Maxon approached again, yelling, and that he opened the glove box and took out a 9mm pistol. Wells reportedly told investigators that he held the gun at his side and warned Maxon to back up. When Maxon allegedly refused and moved toward him with clenched fists, Wells fired two shots into Maxon’s chest. Wells said he had a permit to carry the firearm.
Police and emergency responders were called to the Kenridge Drive home just before 11:15 p.m. Officers arrived to find Maxon suffering from at least one gunshot wound and Wells at the scene with his hands raised. Maxon was transported to a hospital, where some reports say he was pronounced dead around 2 a.m. on Saturday, August 5, 2017, after being shot late the previous night.
Wells called 911 himself and told police what had happened. He was taken into custody at the scene, arrested, and charged with criminal homicide. Reports said he was lodged in the Allegheny County Jail while awaiting arraignment. Prosecutors later argued there was no justification for deadly force, characterizing the incident as a confrontation that could have remained a fistfight rather than ending in a shooting.
Wells claimed self-defense from the beginning. At a preliminary hearing, a judge ordered him to stand trial in Maxon’s death, while noting that preliminary hearings require a low level of proof. Reports from the case described Maxon as physically larger than Wells, about 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds, a point raised in connection with Wells’ claim that he felt threatened. At trial, Wells again maintained that Maxon followed him to his car, blocked the door, cursed at him, and threatened to beat him before the shooting occurred. Available online news reports identify Wells as the sole suspect arrested and charged in the case, but the accessible reports do not provide a clear final verdict or sentencing outcome.
