An Aliquippa man will spend much of his adult life in state prison after a Beaver County judge yesterday sentenced Brett Ours to 16-32 years for a savage January 2025 beating inside the city’s VFW that left another man fighting for his life. A jury convicted Ours on multiple counts, including aggravated assault and strangulation, but acquitted him of attempted murder. The victim, Preston Coleman, suffered severe injuries and was airlifted to a trauma center, where relatives say he remained in critical condition for weeks.
Judge throws the book after guilty verdict
The sentence came down at the Beaver County Courthouse, according to CBS Pittsburgh. Prosecutors secured convictions on charges that included aggravated assault, strangulation, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of instruments of crime, and several counts of simple assault. Jurors, after days of testimony and watching video from inside the bar, ultimately cleared Ours of attempted murder.
Surveillance video stuns jurors
Channel 11 reported that surveillance footage shown at trial captured the Jan. 5, 2025 attack inside VFW Post 3577, with Ours striking and strangling Preston Coleman for roughly 30 to 40 minutes. The video also shows a barstool being used as a weapon and several people standing by and watching rather than stepping in, according to WPXI. Prosecutors told the jury the sustained beating left Coleman gravely injured and in need of an airlift to a regional trauma center.
Brief standoff ends in arrest
Aliquippa police arrested Ours nearly a month after the attack, following a short standoff at a home in the 400 block of Allegheny Avenue in West Aliquippa, Patch reports. Authorities said the capture was the result of a multi-agency effort involving the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Marshals, and Pennsylvania state police.
Civil suit targets VFW; DA eyes possible hate-crime angle
Meanwhile, the victim’s attorney has filed a civil lawsuit against the Veterans Home Association that owns the VFW, accusing the group of negligence and failing to protect customers, according to CBS Pittsburgh. Family members and the lawyer say Coleman was the only Black person in the bar that night and have called the assault a hate crime. Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible said investigators have not ruled out that possibility, per WTAE. The lawsuit demands a jury trial and seeks damages for Coleman’s injuries and for alleged failures by the post’s operators.
Co-defendant takes plea deal
A second man, Ronald Brown, admitted taking part in the beating and on March 11 pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. He was sentenced to three to six years in prison, WPXI reports. At Brown’s hearing, the judge told him he had never seen video he considered “as disgusting as this,” underscoring prosecutors’ description of the attack.
