Jose Esteban Maldonado-Luzuriaga was in the Bucks County prison on homicide and related charges with bail set at $3 million yesterday morning in the death of William Sullo III, First Assistant District Attorney David Zellis said.

Sullo, 30, of Philadelphia, a takeout clerk at the Salute Restaurant Bar in the 2300 block of Knights Road, was run down minutes after he had helped a bartender escort Maldonado-Luzuriaga out of the bar, authorities said.

Bartenders had refused to serve Maldonado-Luzuriaga alcohol when he entered the bar around 10:22 p.m. because he appeared heavily intoxicated, officials said.

A short time later, one of those bartenders spotted him drinking a beer slipped to him by a fellow patron, authorities said. So they kicked him out.

Maldonado-Luzuriaga, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador who lives up the road from the Salute bar, got into a white 2006 Ford F150, circled the lot a few times, aimed the pickup toward the front of the bar, and gunned it in anger toward Sullo, who stood on the curb watching, authorities said.

Sullo, of the Parkwood section of Northeast Philadelphia, was pinned against the exterior wall of the bar while the bartender-bouncer standing next to him, Carl Slaton Jr., jumped out of harm's way, authorities said.

Slaton was one of the two bartenders who originally refused to serve Maldonado-Luzuriaga and who had tossed out the drunken patron with Sullo's help, authorities said.

Maldonado-Luzuriaga later told investigators that he had drunk five Corona beers before the crash and had been angry that Slaton and Sullo had kicked him out, authorities said.

"Clearly, he was aiming the truck at both of them," Zellis said. "It's just by the grace of God that Mr. Slaton was able to get out of the way."

Maldonado-Luzuriaga worked as a landscaper and was driving a truck that belonged to his boss, Bensalem Police Sgt. Andrew Aninsman said.

Zellis described the pickup truck as a "murder weapon."

Maldonado-Luzuriaga told investigators he had been living in the United States as an illegal immigrant for five or six years, Zellis said. But little else was known about his background or family.

He lived at Bucks Meadows Apartments in the 3100 block of Knights Road. Some of his neighbors - fellow Spanish speakers - were in the bar that night, Aninsman said.

A smattering of those patrons followed him out of the bar and argued with him in the parking lot before he got into the truck, authorities said.

Zellis said Bensalem police would be responsible for notifying federal authorities about the suspect's questionable immigration status. Prosecutors would nonetheless press forward with their case, and a preliminary hearing could take place in the next 10 days, Zellis said.

Maldonado-Luzuriaga is charged with criminal homicide, attempted homicide, reckless endangerment, and causing death while being an unlicensed driver.

The Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office was conducting an autopsy yesterday on Sullo, who was pronounced dead at Frankford Hospital in Torresdale.

A man who answered the phone yesterday at the Sullo residence declined to comment.