Jason Glenn, mortally wounded in a shooting last month on the North Side, was able to utter a one-word description of the gunman.

"Dreads," Mr. Glenn, 21, said between screams of pain as Anthony Carboni, 37, asked him what happened and tried to apply pressure to his wound.

It was enough for a district judge to order a homicide trial for the suspected gunman, Darin Davis, 20, of the North Side.

According to police, the altercation was over an iPod that Mr. Glenn tried to sell to Mr. Davis.

No one has come forward as a witness to the shooting, although a Children, Youth and Families services caseworker testified at a preliminary hearing yesterday that she saw the two men fighting before she heard what sounded like gunfire.

At about 9:30 p.m. July 21, Ladina Anderson said, she drove onto the 1600 block of Sandusky Court, where she was to meet with a client.

She saw two men, one white and the other black, jostling around before their confrontation became more violent.

At one point, she heard the black man say, "Get my gun! Get my gun!"

A moment later she saw that man walk into an apartment building, return outside and out of her view, and then heard two popping sounds like gunfire. The then-unidentified black man returned to the apartment building.

Mr. Carboni, who had been visiting a friend, looked out the window when he heard the gun shots. He said he saw Mr. Glenn staggering along the walkway clutching his midsection.

Mr. Carboni went to assist Mr. Glenn as his friend called 911.

Police at the scene interviewed Mr. Carboni, and they approached and questioned the suspect when they saw him dumping some trash.

"Was he wearing dreads?" defense attorney James Sheets asked Detective Tom Foley.

"He looked like he does now," Detective Foley answered, nodding toward Mr. Davis near him with his hair braided in corn rows.

"You are aware that he doesn't have dreadlocks," Mr. Sheets said.

"I don't know the difference," Detective Foley answered.

Mr. Sheets argued that charges should be dismissed because no one identified his client as having been involved in the fight, and because he did not wear his hair in dreadlocks.

District Judge Oscar Petite Jr. considered Detective Foley's testimony that Mr. Davis admitted that he had been in a fight with "a snap," slang for a drug addict looking to trade stolen or found goods in exchange for illegal drugs.

Mr. Davis told police that he had just arrived at the complex when the victim approached him for a deal. He responded that he was not a drug dealer, but he said he kept the iPod that had been offered for the trade.

Police searched Mr. Davis' apartment and found the iPod. No weapon was found.

Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini argued that witnesses had presented enough circumstantial evidence against Mr. Davis.

Judge Petite agreed.

Mr. Davis was returned to the Allegheny County Jail, where he is being held without bail, pending trial on charges of homicide and theft by unlawful taking.