By Eileen Faust and Brandie Kessler, efaust@pottsmerc.com bkessler@pottsmerc.com

There was nothing deeper than the compassion and caring Scott Bitler showed for the world, according to those who knew him. That's what has made the tragedy of his murder during a robbery at his Reading barbershop all the more difficult to comprehend.

Bitler, a graduate of Owen J. Roberts High School, the son of Nancy and James E. Bitler, was 31 when he was gunned down last Friday.

"Scott evinced the kind of compassion for his whole community that we encourage for church people," said the Rev. Milton Detterline, minister of St. Peter's United Church of Christ on Route 23 in Knauertown.

"He was always thinking of other people," Bitler's mother, Nancy Bitler, said.

Detterline remembered Bitler, who was born in Pottstown, for the time he spent visiting his brother Greg after a "horrendous" accident that left Greg brain damaged and in need of round-the-clock nursing care.

"Scott went from Reading to the center in Hamburg every evening after work for a couple of months," said Detterline. After Greg was moved to a facility in Quakertown, Bitler made the trek there every Sunday and would cut his brother's hair himself, Detterline said.

"This is not a simple thing with his brother; He has shown that kind of compassion toward numbers of people," said Detterline.

Bitler's mother recalled how he looked after Greg and Greg's twin sister, both his younger siblings, when he was growing up.

"He was one of seven children," she said, noting that there was a big difference in age between the four older children and the three younger children. Bitler was the oldest of the youngest three. "He was great with all of them, all of them loved him."

A friend of Scott's who wrote from Pittsburgh remembered Bitler as the "warmest person I'd ever met."

"One of my fondest memories of Scott was during a winter storm in 02' or 03'," wrote Jessica Rummel, who said the two spent the afternoon hanging out at a local establishment. "We walked back to my place, a block away, and started a snow fight. It was all fun until 'somebody' got hurt. He quickly gained his spirit back and we made snow angels in the snow bank in front of my apt. It was probably really cold laying in the snow but, it didn't matter I was with the warmest person I had ever met."

Even after his death, Bitler continued to show his compassion for other people as an organ donor.

Rev. Detterline explained that Bitler's heart is beating in a 24-year-old Philadelphia man, his lungs were implanted in Philadelphia, his liver at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a kidney in Harrisburg.

Bitler was a 1995 graduate of Owen J. Roberts High School and attended the Charlie Haynes Barber School in Reading, according to his obituary.

His mother said he played in Coventry Little League when he was younger and played football at OJR. He was also in Boy Scouts for a number of years.

Bitler was shot and killed in his Reading barbershop on Friday, Nov. 21, about 5 p.m. by two unidentified men who are still being sought by police.

It was just before closing time, and Bitler, who had owned the shop at 401 N. 13th Street for six years, and three other barbers were in the shop attending to their last two customers when the two

men burst through the front door and yelled, "Gimme the money. Gimme the money. Get on the floor," according to a spokesman for the Reading Police Criminal Investigation Unit.

The first man who came through the door was the only suspect witnesses got a good look at, police said, and was the one holding the gun that ended up claiming Bitler's life.

According to police, the two customers and three other barbers got down on the floor, and just then they heard the gunman say, "What are you doing?" supposedly to Scott Bitler. That's when the shot went off, witnesses told police.

Police said it was not known if Bitler had a gun or was attempting to do something to fight off the robbers at the moment he was shot.

According to the Berks County Coroner's Office, Bitler died of a single gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at Reading Hospital and Medical Center on Saturday about 10 a.m. His death has been classified as a homicide.

After the shooting, the robbers immediately fled, empty handed, running uphill up Buttonwood Street and turning north on Linden, police said. They do not know if the robbers fled in a car from there or continued on foot.

Officers canvassed the neighborhood over the weekend, seeking anyone who may have witnessed the robbers' flight, and were still chasing down leads as of Tuesday afternoon.

Police described the two men as black and both were wearing dark-colored hoodies with the hoods pulled over their heads.

The gunman was 6 feet tall and had a mask over the lower half of his face, police said. He was also wearing dark pants. Both men were in their 20s, according to witnesses.

Police said the neighborhood was not prone to this type of violence, which made the incident all the more shocking.

"I would use the word difficult, Scotty was in a difficult neighborhood in Reading," said Detterline.

Nancy Bitler said she was just thinking about the irony of the situation she found herself in Tuesday morning.

"It's so ironic because when Scott was 13 he had a friend, his name was Adam Mumma," she said. Mumma was killed by a gunshot while riding his dirt bike in Chester County.

"I remember our church down here had a flea market and (Scott) set up a table and he was selling baseball cards and he put up a sign for donations (for Mumma), and now I turn around and they're doing it for (Scott).

The fund that's been set up where memorial contributions may be sent in Scott Bitler's name will go towards the education costs of his nephew, Sean Becker, 20. Becker is going to go to school for nursing.

"Scott used to say you can't just go through this life being a bum, you have to be a professional at something," Nancy Bitler said of the advice her son gave to Becker. It was Bitler who suggested Becker go to school for nursing.

The one thing Nancy Bitler said stands out in her mind about her late son is his love for his family.

"Family meant everything to him," she said. "Family was the thing for him."

Anyone with information that could help in the apprehension of the suspected robbers should contact Crime Alert Berks County at 877-373-9913.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend the funeral service for Bitler at the St. Peter's United Church of Christ, Knauertown, 1920 Ridge Road, St. Peter's, on Saturday, Nov. 29, at 10:30 a.m. Officiating will be the Rev. Milton E. Detterline. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Friends will be received from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Cattermole-Klotzbach Funeral Home, 600 Washington St., Royersford; or from 9 to 10:15 a.m. Saturday at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to aid in the tuition costs of Scott's nephew, Sean Becker. Checks may be made to "Nancy A. Bitler," and sent to the St. Peter UCC Church, Box 208, St. Peter's, PA 19470.