Heroin or litter box: Arnold stabbing suspects don’t agree on cause of fight

Brian C. Rittmeyer | Thursday, February 13, 2025 1:41 p.m.

TribLive

Two men who police say stabbed each other in an Arnold apartment Sunday morning were fighting over either heroin or a dirty kitty litter box, according to a criminal complaint.

Police charged Michael James Holliday, 43, of Arnold and William Johnson, 54, of Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood each with felony aggravated assault, misdemeanor simple assault and drug offenses.

Holliday, who made the 911 call for help from the apartment in the 2000 block of Freeport Road, initially told police he accidentally stabbed Johnson, who then stabbed him back, according to a criminal complaint.

Johnson told police he stabbed Holliday in self-defense.

But the story changed, police say, when the men were taken to a hospital. Johnson was being treated for a stab wound to his arm and Holliday for a stab wound to his back.

There, police say, Holliday told them Johnson cornered him in the kitchen with a knife after he refused to give Johnson heroin, the complaint states. Holliday said he stabbed Johnson in the arm, after which Johnson stabbed him in the back.

Johnson, however, said the argument was over cleaning out a kitty litter box, the complaint states. Johnson said he was going to take care of it when Holliday said something “smart,” and Holliday stabbed him when he walked toward Holliday to confront him about it, according to the complaint.

Police said a search of the house for other victims turned up blood around the kitchen sink and up the walls, and a trail of blood through the house to the bathroom and bedroom.

Stamp bags of suspected heroin and needles were in plain view in the living room, the complaint states.

Authorities obtained a search warrant for the house. They reported finding a couple of bundles of suspected heroin and fentanyl, syringes and three knives with blood on them.

Stamp bags of suspected heroin also were found in Johnson’s wallet, the complaint states.

Neither Holliday nor Johnson had been arraigned as of Thursday, according to court records.