William P. Black Sr., a 44-year-old male from Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, was killed in the early morning hours of March 11, 1981, after an argument inside Royster's Zodiac Lounge in Brownsville turned into gunfire. The shooting happened around 2:00 a.m., and by 2:20 a.m. Black had been pronounced dead at Brownsville Hospital. Online source information identifies him as lost to gun violence that day in Brownsville.
The available newspaper account describes the incident as a barroom shooting rather than a planned attack. Black and another man, identified as Russell Brooks, had reportedly been arguing at the lounge before shots were fired. Brooks was also struck and was taken to Brownsville Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the stomach. At the time of the report, Brooks' age and address were not known.
State police indicated that both men were carrying guns, but the early reporting did not establish who pulled a weapon first. That uncertainty left the confrontation clouded: what began as an argument in a local lounge ended with one man dead and another critically wounded, while investigators were still trying to determine how the gunfire started and which man initiated it.
The online sources located do not provide evidence of a reported arrest, formal suspect designation, criminal charges, trial, or conviction in connection with Black's death. The only other person specifically named in the available reporting is Russell Brooks, who was wounded during the same exchange, but the source material does not state that he was arrested or charged.
