Arrest made in 2013 Good Samaritan shooting
DNA evidence has led police to an arrest in the 2013 killing of Vincent Kelley, who was shot while attempting to thwart a South Strabane Township bank robbery.
South Strabane police on Tuesday charged Keith David Wilk, 39, of Pittsburgh, with multiple felonies, including homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, carrying a firearm without a license, and misdemeanors of reckless endangerment.
According to the criminal complaint, on June 16, 2013, Wilk entered the Citizens Bank inside the Giant Eagle on Washington Road, jumped over the counter and threatened employees with a gun. Tellers put money in an insulated cooler before the suspect began to flee.
Customers, including Kelley, followed the robber out of the store. After the suspect entered his vehicle, Kelley attempted to stop him, and Wilk fired his gun at Kelley multiple times, court documents state.
According to the complaint, Wilk left behind a black umbrella he had used to shield his face from security cameras. Police were able to obtain a DNA sample from the umbrella, but it would not be until Dec. 17 of this year that it was matched to Wilk, the complaint says.
Police interviewed a woman who dated Wilk for seven years beginning in 2015. She told police that in July 2020, Wilk became “emotional” and was “crying and rambling.”
Court paperwork states that the ex-girlfriend said Wilk then confessed to robbing a Citizens Bank, and that a man had tried to stop him from getting away.
“I had to shoot him,” he told her, according to the complaint. “There had to be a hero in the crowd.”
Mark Kelley, Vincent Kelly’s brother, said there was a “wave of emotions” as the family learned an arrest had been made after nearly 10 years.
His brother’s actions that day were not surprising to Mark Kelley.
“That was his M.O. If he saw wrong, he did his best to make right. That’s just who he was,” Kelley said. “He’d give you the shirt off his back. I know a lot of people say that. It was literal. I’ve seen him do it. Whoever this guy was, he took a shining star and put the light out for no reason.”
Kelley hopes that now that an arrest has been made, the family can begin to get answers.
Wilk was arraigned Tuesday afternoon before District Judge Michael Manfredi, who sent him to the Washington County jail without bond.
“I can’t speak for the rest of the family, but I didn’t think this would ever come,” Kelley said. “I think everyone is ecstatic that it did come, and right before Christmas. That’s probably the best Christmas present we could have gotten.”