A Pittsburgh judge has sentenced William Samuels, 57, to no fewer than two years and three months and no more than four years, 11 months and 29 days behind bars for shooting a man five times inside Club Pittsburgh, a 24-hour gym and club serving the city's queer community in the Strip District. Samuels pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, terroristic threats and simple assault, and under the terms of his sentence, he becomes eligible for release as soon as February, followed by 12 years of probation.
Judge Jill Rangos handed down the sentence on Wednesday, according to court documents cited by WPXI. The shooting happened on November 22, 2024, at Club Pittsburgh on Penn Avenue, where victim Tyler Neff was shot three times in the torso and once in each arm, per police attribution reported by the station. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors withdrew an original attempted homicide charge in exchange for Samuels' guilty pleas on the lesser counts.
According to police criminal complaints reported by Star Observer, Samuels told investigators he was unhoused and had rented a room at Club Pittsburgh with his girlfriend to escape cold weather, sneaking a .380 caliber handgun into the facility beneath his heavy coat. Samuels said he opened fire after mistakenly believing he heard his girlfriend shouting for help in an adjacent room, the outlet reported. Responding officers recovered a Ruger .380 pistol with an empty magazine and three spent .380 shell casings on the fourth floor, where Neff had pinned Samuels to the ground, according to the same police documents.
A Veteran's Split-Second Decision
Tyler Neff, a 30-year-old Army veteran and local drummer, confronted Samuels as the gunman stepped off an elevator with his weapon drawn, then charged and tackled him to stop further violence, Neff told WPXI in a January 2025 interview. Neff held Samuels down for around 15 minutes until police arrived, absorbing five gunshot wounds in the process, per the station's report. Police complaints noted that six other patrons inside the club had reported Samuels pointing his handgun directly at them before Neff intervened, the same documents show.
Neff's injuries required multiple major organ surgeries along with specialized vascular surgery to repair a severed artery in his arm — an injury doctors initially warned could require amputation or prove fatal due to blood loss, WPXI reported. After leaving the hospital, Neff began occupational therapy as part of his recovery, according to the station's account.
How Pennsylvania's Sentencing Math Works
The sentence's unusual structure — a minimum of two years and three months against a maximum just under five years — reflects a statutory requirement rather than judicial discretion. Pennsylvania law dictates that any maximum prison sentence must be at least double the minimum term imposed, Pittsburgh legal counsel Aaron Sontz explained in comments cited by a local legal blog. Standard sentencing guidelines set the minimum, while statutory limits cap the maximum, according to Sontz.
Ripple Effects Across Pittsburgh's Queer Nightlife
Club Pittsburgh has operated at 1139 Penn Avenue since 2001 as a private, members-only facility offering private rooms, a gym, steam room, dry sauna and whirlpool, according to local LGBTQ directory QBurgh. The same Strip District building once housed Hot Mass, an internationally recognized weekly electronic and techno dance party held on the floor below Club Pittsburgh starting in 2012, before that party relocated to a new space in early 2025, per Wikipedia.
In the aftermath of the shooting, neighboring LGBTQ+ venues in Pittsburgh took notice. The Blue Moon Bar in Lawrenceville implemented heightened security measures, including mandatory coat checks, after it emerged that Samuels had concealed his gun inside a heavy winter coat, The Advocate reported in November 2024.
The case adds to a string of gun violence resolved along the Penn Avenue corridor in the Strip District. Hoodline reported last November that gunman Howard Hawkins was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2021 killing of 18-year-old Ahmir Tuli outside Preeti's Pit, just blocks from Club Pittsburgh, and this past May a getaway driver connected to that same 2021 shooting was sentenced to prison as well.
