WASHINGTON, Pa.—Trial has begun for a former Texas man accused of having shot a bystander to death during a confrontation at a western Pennsylvania welding shop last year.

Forty-nine-year-old Danny Kirtley is charged in Washington County with criminal homicide and assault in the February 2011 shooting death of 34-year-old Trevor Compton of Mont Belvieu, Texas.

The (Washington) Observer-Reporter ( http://bit.ly/RSGUse) says a supervisor testified Wednesday that he saw Kirtley fighting with another worker at Rosenboom Welding & Fabrication in North Strabane Township. The supervisor said the other worker fled and Compton went over and told Kirtley to stay on the ground, but Kirtley pulled a gun from his pocket and shot the victim.

Both men had come from Texas to work as welders in the booming Marcellus Shale natural gas industry.

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Information from: Observer-Reporter, http://www.observer-reporter.com