TITUSVILLE — A West Mead Township man accused of fatally shooting an Erie man at an outdoor party in eastern Crawford County in early June, told investigators he pulled out a gun and fired it as a group of “black guys” came running toward him, a Pennsylvania State Police trooper testified on Thursday morning.

The trooper, Brian Palm, also said the accused shooter, 27-year-old Stephen L. Kozak, told investigators the people he shot at were the same people who were involved in fights at the party in which females were struck and one person was stomped.

Palm provided the only testimony during Kozak’s preliminary hearing before Titusville District Judge Amy Nicols on a criminal homicide charge in the death of 21-year-old Erie resident, Jimmy E. Johnson, who was pronounced dead at the Meadville Medical Center shortly after the shooting on the early morning of June 4.

Nicols held the charge for court after the hearing and returned Kozak to the Crawford County Correctional Facility without bond.