Suspect in killing of Lawrenceville bouncer earlier fled traffic stop, Pittsburgh police say

Megan Guza / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Hours before he allegedly gunned down a hookah bar bouncer earlier this month, Eric Sudduth-Jones fled from Pittsburgh police when they attempted a traffic stop on the city’s South Side, according to the criminal complaint filed against Mr. Sudduth-Jones in connection with the homicide.

It was the second time in the days and hours leading up to the killing of Malcolm Nowlin in Lawrenceville that Mr. Sudduth-Jones, 24, caught the attention of police.

Late Oct. 2, detectives from the city’s narcotics unit stopped Mr. Sudduth-Jones in a purple Dodge Charger on the North Side, according to the complaint. Court records do not list any corresponding charges from that traffic stop.

Then shortly before 1 a.m. Oct. 6, detectives attempted to stop the same Charger on East Carson Street near South 13th Street, police said. The driver fled, but a detective who was on the street at the time got a look at him, and he would later say the man in the car matched a photo of Mr. Sudduth-Jones.

About 2 ½ hours later, the same Dodge Charger and another vehicle pulled into the parking lot across from Dijlah Restaurant and Café on Butler Street, according to the complaint. Mr. Sudduth-Jones and a group of men and women were hanging outside the cars until he tries to get into Dijlah, which houses a restaurant in the front of the building and an after-hours hookah lounge in the back.

Nowlin, the bouncer for the lounge, told Mr. Sudduth-Jones he couldn’t come in, police said. An armed security guard referred to only as “witness 1” told police he went outside to speak to Mr. Sudduth-Jones, who was ignoring his friends’ suggestions of “it’s time to leave,” according to the complaint.

Police said camera footage showed Mr. Sudduth-Jones returning to the Charger, retrieving a gun from the trunk, and then going back to the lounge. A second witness said Mr. Sudduth-Jones was taunting Nowlin, telling him to come outside so he could “beat your [expletive].”

At least one of the witnesses later identified a photo of Mr. Sudduth-Jones as the shooter, noting a broken-heart tattoo under his right eye.

Footage showed Mr. Sudduth-Jones started to walk away but then returned, police said, and opened fire. Nowlin was struck in the head.

Just as investigators were able to track the movements of Mr. Sudduth-Jones and the Charger in the hours leading up to the shooting, they did the same in the hours after, according to the complaint. Police said the vehicle ended up parked outside of Mr. Sudduth-Jones’ North Side home before heading outbound on the Parkway East toward Swissvale.

Eastern Regional Mon Valley police officers found the Charger engulfed in flames in East Pittsburgh shortly after 7 a.m. the morning of the shooting.

Nowlin died two days later.

Mr. Sudduth-Jones was taken into custody on one count of homicide Monday afternoon in Wilkinsburg. A judge denied bail at an early morning hearing Tuesday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 23. Court records did not list as attorney Tuesday morning. 

Friends and co-workers told Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV that Nowlin worked as a security guard at various establishments, including Silky’s Pub in Bloomfield.

“It doesn’t feel real at all,” Silky’s cook and bartender Angelo Franceschini told the TV station. “He was just trying to support himself.”