Authorities on Friday arrested a Pittsburgh man they say stabbed a motorcyclist at a city car wash two days earlier.
A witness told Pittsburgh police she saw Joseph Brandt, 46, of the city’s Carrick neighborhood, yelling at another man outsideof Becks Run Car Wash in Arlington Wednesday night, according to a criminal complaint. The second man had taken his motorcycle into a car-wash stall.
It remained unclear what led to the argument, which eventually escalated into physical violence and ended with a stabbing.
Police said they were dispatched to the Bajo Road business around 8:20 p.m. Wednesday. They charged Brandt Thursday with a felony count of aggravated assault, and misdemeanor counts of simple assault and possessing instruments of crime.
Detectives from the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office went to a Stowe Township house Friday morning to take Brandt into custody, spokesman Mike Manko said. Brandt initially refused to leave the 10st Street home.
He later surrendered without incident.
Brandt was taken to the Allegheny County Jail and was awaiting arraignment Friday afternoon, Manko said.
After the initial confrontation Wednesday night between Brandt and the victim, the two men separated, the complaint said. The victim walked into a car wash stall and attempted to get on his motorcylce to leave.
Police said Brandt went to a truck and pulled out what the witness called “a large Milwaukee knife.” He then stabbed the victim in the leg and drove away, heading towards East Carson Street, the complaint said.
Milwaukee is a Wisconsin-based company that sells a variety of folding and utility knives.
Officers who responded to the scene said they found the victim, a large puddle of blood in the car-wash stall, and blood splatter in the business’ parking lot.
Paramedics rushed the victim to UPMC Presbyterian in critical condition. His condition was later upgraded to stable.
The victim, who had a camera attached to his motorcyle, told a witness at the scene that he recorded the encounter on the device, according to the complaint. He also took a photograph of the license plate on the truck Brandt was driving.
Police previously arrested Brandt in a simple assault in July 2022, court records show. He accepted a plea deal in 2023 and a judge sentenced him to two years’ probation on a pair of misdemeanor charges and a summary count of criminal mischief.
Brandt also was arrested in May on misdemeanor counts of harassment and making terroristic threats, court records show. He was taken to the Allegheny County Jail and released on nonmonetary bail. His preliminary hearing in that case is set for July 28.
An attorney was not listed in court records for Brandt’s Friday arrest.