By Monica Pryts

special to the meadville tribune

GREENVILLE — Authorities are investigating the death of a 45-year-old Greenville man early Tuesday in what police called a “severe assault.”

A second victim of the assault was hospitalized and is in critical but stable condition, Mercer County District Attorney Robert G. Kochems said.

Kochems would not identify either victim or the circumstances of their injuries.

He would not comment on whether police had identified a suspect or had anyone in custody but asked anyone with information about what happened to contact Greenville police at (724) 588-4191.

Greenville West Salem Township police, who were called at 12:43 a.m. to 94 Clinton St., would only say they were investigating a “severe assault.”

Mercer County Coroner J. Bradley McGonigle III said Tuesday afternoon his office was investigating and that an autopsy was being performed on the man. He expected to have a full report today.

Kochems confirmed Tuesday evening that a “middle-aged” man was dead and a woman was injured. The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting the autopsy, Kochems said.

He said he was “confident the investigation is progressing.”

The Greenville rumor mill was working overtime Tuesday, with tales of a double shooting or a stabbing, and either a suspect at large or one already in custody, swirling around the borough. None of them could be confirmed through official sources.

The 94 Clinton address is one of three apartments in a converted house between South Mercer Street and Penn Avenue. The triplex, which had a few children’s bicycles out front, was partly blocked off Tuesday by police tape.

The house is owned by Nancy and Louis Davis of Transfer. Davis said police told him not to release the name of the tenant or talk about what happened.

A woman who answered the door at the apartment next to the apparent crime scene said police told her not to discuss the incident.

The tenants at the other apartment, Kyle Gearhart and his girlfriend, Joyce Miller, both 23, said they didn’t know who lived at 94 Clinton but believed it was a man and woman in their 30s.