Pocono News Section

Eyewitness To Fatal Shooting Talks Exlusively to WBRE

Eyewitness To Fatal Shooting Talks Exlusively to WBRE - Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 7:01PM EST

Reported by: Jill Konopka
Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 @07:01pm EST
(JESSUP, Lackawanna County) - An argument between two brothers ends with one of them shot dead, the other in a jail cell charged with homicide. Their mutual friend apparently witnessed the entire incident on Gallagher Road hours after they took him out for a celebration dinner. 23-year-old Christopher Hahn is going to jail, hours after police say he confessed to killing his older brother Stephen Hahn of Olyphant. Troopers say it happened inside his apartment after a night of bar hopping in Lackawanna County. Navy Aviation Engineer John Carrill, "I grabbed the phone, called police. Chris was freaking out. Reporter Jill Konopka asks ‘Was Chris drunk?’ John Carrill replied, “Yeah, both of them were pretty hammered." It’s been one long sleepless night for 20-year-old John Carrill of Scranton. He says he saw the brothers get into a verbal spat, before a shoving match ended tragically. Carrill says Chris grabbed his gun to scare Stephen away. John Carrill added, "He told Stephen to get the hell out of the house. Steve kept antagonizing him saying 'what are you gunna do shoot me, what are you gunna do, shoot me? Then Stephen spit in Chris's face. One thing led to another, struggle and the gun went off through Steve's throat." Carrill says he tried to step in, but it was too late for 28-year-old Stephen. John Carrill added, "I tried to get involved, tried to stop him and what not, and watched him fall to the ground. And he died in my hands." It's still unclear why the brothers were feuding in the first place, but Carrill says that's the way they arrived home to Jessup. Trooper Bill Satkowski with the Dunmore PSP, "We're still trying to determine what ultimately led up to that single gunshot wound." Neighbors don't know what to think. They only knew Chris Hahn as a nice quiet guy, who worked as an electrician at the Tobyhanna Army Depot. Jeremy Karwaski says he went to High School with Chris, "He was just a normal kid like me, like anybody. Nothing to make me think he'd do something like this, especially to his brother, that's messed up." Pat Favola lives right next door, "Man, I'd never think this would happen, ever it's actually a real big shock about it." One, that Chris Hahn could pay for, for the rest of his life. He’s charged with one count of criminal homicide and is being held without bail at the Lackawanna County jail.