S.C. man visiting Pittsburgh for furry convention charged in hotel sword attack

A South Carolina man in Pittsburgh for the Anthrocon Convention has been charged with attacking his friend with a sword on Thursday inside a Downtown hotel room.

Officers were dispatched to the Wyndham Grand Hotel on Commonwealth Place across from Point State Park at 1 a.m. Thursday for reports of a man bleeding in the hallway and screaming for help, a criminal complaint said.

Officers found the victim in the hotel lobby and saw blood on the floor and walls of a room on the fifth floor, a criminal complaint said.

Police arrested Jake O’Leary, 26, of Greenville, S.C. after being told that he was swinging a sword.

Medics reported that the victim had a severe cut splitting his right pinkie finger and damage to his bone, the complaint said. The man told medics that he would go to the hospital on his own for stitches.

O’Leary also appeared to be injured, with a scratch or bruise to his right cheek.

A witness told police that he, the victim and another man were in Pittsburgh for the annual Anthrocon, or furry, convention taking place Downtown, the complaint said.

The witness told officers the group was going to arrive on Thursday, but O’Leary, who is a friend of theirs, asked them to come a day early and stay in his hotel room until the group’s room was ready, the complaint said.

The men were getting ready to go to bed around 1 a.m. when the witness told police that he heard O’Leary yell, “Allah does not approve,” leave the bed, and grab a large, black sword. O’Leary began “wildly swinging” it at the man, the complaint said.

The victim shielded himself, the complaint said, and O’Leary struck him multiple times before the other two men could intervene, the complaint said.

Another witness told police that he saw the man “on top” of O’Leary and that he thought the man was trying to cuddle O’Leary before the assault began, the complaint said.

The victim told police that he and O’Leary had briefly dated over the winter but were now just friends.

Police charged O’Leary with aggravated assault.

He was unable to post $25,000 bail and is currently being held at the Allegheny County Jail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled July 15 at Pittsburgh Municipal Court.