Penn Hills mayor links hookah bar killings to love triangle

A weekend shooting at a Penn Hills hookah bar that killed two people and wounded seven others is believed to be a case of targeted violence that might have stemmed from a love triangle, its mayor told TribLive Wednesday.

Police have disclosed little about their ongoing investigation. But Penn Hills Mayor Pauline Calabrese said she received information this week from law enforcement that indicated that one of the victims who died, Nathaniel Smiley Jr., was the target of the shooting at Ballers Hookah Lounge and Cigar Bar.

Calabrese declined to be more specific about the source of her information.

A spokesman for the Allegheny County Police, the lead agency, did not return a phone call Wednesday afternoon seeking to corroborate the mayor’s comments.

County police previously had declined to comment on Smiley, 44, of Pittsburgh, a felon with a long criminal record.

Smiley was shot in the head following an argument with an unknown man at Ballers about 2:50 a.m. Sunday, according to authorities.

Also killed was Stephanie Stuart, 28, of McKeesport.

It is unclear whether the two knew each other.

Calabrese said Penn Hills is responding to the shooting’s aftermath with increased police patrols and additional DUI checkpoints.

“We want to send a strong message,” she said. “Anyone who intends to come to Penn Hills, who intends to take part in bad activity, criminal activity — beware.”

Drug dealer

Smiley, whose criminal history dates back more than 30 years, had been imprisoned multiple times for dealing drugs.

County police would not say what role, if any, they believed Smiley’s drug-dealing history played in Sunday’s violence.

A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh indicted him in March 2018 for distributing heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. Smiley pleaded guilty a year later to two drug-trafficking offenses and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Smiley was released from federal prison on Oct. 11, 2022, online records show. A month later, he was charged in Shaler with a DUI. He pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to six months of probation.

A notation posted online Wednesday in Smiley’s federal court docket confirmed his shooting death and formally terminated his probation.

Calabrese said Wednesday there’s “no indication” Smiley’s previous crimes played a role in the shooting.

Three days earlier, as many as 100 people were crowded inside the hookah bar on Laketon Road when Smiley and the unidentified man began arguing.

During the altercation, two or more people fired seven to 10 shots, county police Lt. Venerando Costa said Tuesday.

Police said they did not know who fired the handguns, which were not recovered by investigators.

In addition to Smiley and Stuart, bullets struck four men and three women.

Smiley’s life of crime started at age 13, according to federal prosecutors.

By 2019, Smiley had accumulated 16 convictions.

While Smiley was in prison in 2019, a corrections officer found five cellphones and three “shanks,” or home-made metal weapons, in his jail cell, prosecutors said in a pre-sentencing memorandum in his federal drug case.

Prosecutors claimed that Smiley used the phones for an “absolute torrent of criminal activity,” including prostitution, trading jail contraband such as tobacco, and selling “zip” — prison slang for heroin or opiates.

In Allegheny County, Smiley has 13 criminal court cases dating back to 1998, when he was 18, online records show. They include drug and gun crimes.

No liquor license

The hookah bar operators, who police did not name, are cooperating with authorities, Costa said.

The bar was operating without a liquor license, authorities said Monday. Costa called Ballers an “after-hours establishment,” which typically would have been busy after 1 a.m.

Shawn Kelly, a spokesman for the state Liquor Control Board, confirmed the bar wasn’t licensed by the agency.

“In order to legally dispense alcohol in Pennsylvania, an establishment must be licensed,” Kelly said.

State police’s Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement also is investigating the license issue, a spokesman in their Harrisburg offices confirmed.

The bar, which sits near Frankstown Road, is located in what has long been known as the Laketon Professional Building 2.

The owner of that building didn’t respond to emails or phone calls this week seeking comment. Neither have Penn Hills police or Penn Hills Mayor Pauline Calabrese.