Local sports bar employee arrested, accused of putting heavy duty degreaser into coworker’s drink

PITTSBURGH — A local man is facing charges after police said he put heavy duty degreaser in his coworker’s drink while working at a Pittsburgh sports bar.

The alleged poisoning attempt happened at Red Beards Sports Bar at 144 6th Street in downtown Pittsburgh.

According to the criminal complaint, the manager of Red Beards walked into the Zone Two police station to report that one of his employees was possibly harmed by another employee.

The victim told police that he normally drinks a lot of water during his shift but was drinking strawberry tea on the day of the incident, according to the complaint.

The complaint also said the victim told police he left his drink in a holder at his work station and had left the station to possibly go outside. He noticed the drink smelled and tasted differently and had little white bubbles when he got back. He spit out the drink and dumped the rest of it after that.

The victim approached the manager and said he thought his drink had an unknown substance in it. He said he went to drink it and noticed it smelled and tasted different so he spit it out, according to court documents.

The victim said he swallowed a little bit of the drink but spit most of it out when he noticed something was off about it.

The drink left the victim’s lips burning, the criminal complaint said.

The victim asked the manager to check security footage to see if anyone tampered with his drink.

When the manager looked at the security video, he saw another employee, identified as Gregory Evans Jr., pouring heavy duty degreaser into a cup and then dumping the liquid from that cup into the victim’s drink, said court documents.

Police asked the victim if he and Evans Jr. had any issues but the victim said no. Police also asked if it could’ve been a prank and the victim said he keeps to himself at work and doesn’t joke around.

The victim’s only symptom were his upper and lower lip burning and turning red. The redness was gone by the time police interviewed him about the incident, according to the complaint.

Evans Jr. is facing multiple charges, including criminal attempt homicide, various aggravated assault charges, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

Pittsburgh police arrested Evans Jr. on Aug. 24.

An employee at Red Beards offered the following statement:

“My General Manager followed proper procedure in going directly to authorities along with the victim for his protect[ion] and any other employee, then informing Mr. Evans he [is] no longer employed here and it’s now a police matter.”

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