Source: Ex-bartender charged after wild shootings outside McGeehan's

It was a wild weekend at McGeehan's Rock Bottom Tavern, a small bar in Northeast Philly that became the scene of back-to-back shootings.

Now, the first charges are being filed.

Police announced today that they have charged John McGeehan, 55, with five counts of aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime, violation of the Uniform Firearms Act and related offenses after he showed up with two guns early Sunday morning and fired one of them while police were investigating the first shooting.

McGeehan, according to a relative, used to be a bartender at the pub, located on Cottage Street near Cottman Avenue in the city's Holmesburg section, near the Mayfair border.

Police responded to the first shooting at 12:03 a.m. Sunday when a man started firing into the bar through the front door, striking a 23-year-old man inside and nearly hitting the bartender working at the time.

During that investigation, John McGeehan allegedly showed up drunk with a .45-caliber Kimber and a .380-caliber Sig Sauer. He initially refused to drop the gun and fired one shot that didn't strike anybody, police said. Officers disarmed him after a brief struggle. He was charged with five counts of each offense because there were five officers in the area when the gun was fired.

Police have questioned a 21-year-old in connection with the first shooting, but no charges have been filed. He had been kicked out McGeehan's shortly before the first shooting. The shooter fled before police arrived.

"Until they can put the gun in his hand and show that he fired into that building, he's not getting charged," said Officer Christine O'Brien, a police spokeswoman.

-William Bender and Morgan Zalot