A shoe with a partially missing tread turned out to be a key piece of evidence against a suspect in a shooting at a house in Butler, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing Monday.

The flawed tread left behind distinctive shoe prints in the snow Feb. 17 near a home on the 800 block of West Penn Street hit by six gunshots, investigators said.

Less than 15 hours after the shooting, Michael Lee Hutchinson, 24, of Butler appeared at the police station for an interview. On his right foot, Lt. David Villotti testified, was a shoe with a tread that matched the prints.

It would take several more months, but police eventually charged Hutchinson, a felon.

At the hearing, District Judge William Fullerton ordered him held for trial on five counts each of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

He also was bound over for court on six counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, felons not to possess firearms and five counts of reckless endangerment.

He is being held in the Butler County Prison without bail.

Villotti was working as a detective at the time of the shooting, and he was the lead investigator.

The shooting occurred around 11:15 p.m. at the house where a 30-year-old woman and her two young children were living. The woman's then 34-year-old boyfriend and a 63-year-old man were visiting.

No one was injured, but it was a close call, Villotti said.

“The shots rang out and (the occupants) had to hit the floor,” he said.

Lights were on in the house, he noted, and Hutchinson would have known there were people inside.

Police found six bullet holes in the house, one slug in the dining room and five shell casings from a .40-caliber handgun around the home. There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting.

The investigation also turned up fresh shoe prints in the snow — between the targeted house and neighboring homes. Police believed the prints belonged to the shooter.

“The right shoe appeared to have a piece of the rubber, the tread, missing,” Villotti testified. “In the center circle, a piece of the rubber, the size of a quarter, was missing.”

One of the men in the house — who knew Hutchinson — looked at the prints, the officer said, and told police they “look like the shoes Mike Hutchinson wears.”

Villotti searched the internet and found the treads were from a Nike Air Force One. That was the same kind of shoe the defendant had on when police interviewed him around 3 p.m. Sept. 18.

During the interview, Hutchinson acknowledged he “had a history with” one of the men in the house.

“It was a beef over a girl,” the officer testified as to what the defendant told him, “but everything was fine.”

But that same man later recounted to police that the past “beef” was apparently between his brother and Hutchinson, and it was drug related.

Before ending the interview, Villotti asked to see the bottoms of Hutchinson's shoes.

“On the right shoe,” the officer said, “I saw that same piece of the tread was missing as the footprint.”

Police seized the shoes. They also collected sweatshirts that Hutchinson possibly was wearing that day. He was wearing one of those shirts at the interview.

Citing lab reports received in June, Villotti said three of the suspect's sweatshirts had gunshot residue on them.

During the investigation, police also spoke to Hutchinson's girlfriend and a couple who lived at the apartment where he was staying. They all contradicted the alibi the suspect gave police, Villotti said.