Officials say there were six homicides as one victim was eight months pregnant but gunmen remain at large after fleeing scene in Wilkinsburg on foot

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A gun attack in suburban Pittsburgh on Wednesday evening that left five people dead was orchestrated by two people, officials have said.

Allegheny County district attorney Stephen Zappala said Thursday that the gunmen had planned to target at least one of the victims.

Police are still searching for the gunmen, who fled from the scene on foot after killing four women and a man in the borough of Wilkinsburg. At least three others are in hospital, where two men are in critical condition and one woman is stable.

Police said people scrambled from the backyard toward the house as bullets began flying. Four of the victims were found dead on the back porch. The other died at a hospital.

The Allegheny County medical examiner’s office identified the victims. Jerry Shelton, 25, was killed in the attack, with his sisters: Chanetta Powell, 25, and Brittany Powell, 27, who was pregnant. Tina Shelton, 37, and Shada Mahone, 26, also died in the shooting.

Allegheny County police superintendent Charles Moffatt said there were six homicides in the case, because Powell was eight months pregnant.

No suspects are in custody and a motive was not immediately known.

A photograph of the shooting location, posted by local TV WPXI reporter Jennifer Tomazic, shows remnants of a backyard cookout, with a barbecue, strewn chairs and trash littered about.



WPXIJennifer Tomazic (@JenniferTomazic) UPDATE: The backyard where police say 5 were killed and 3 were injured in shooting in #Wilkinsburg #wpxi pic.twitter.com/f6dm0hMTQ3

WPXIJennifer Tomazic (@JenniferTomazic) BREAKING: Alley where police say gunmen fired on bbq in Wilkinsburg. 8 shot, 5 dead. No shooters in custody @WPXI pic.twitter.com/zqWD2y0kuQ

Zappala said the crime scene was one of the worst he’s seen in his 18-year career. “This was a planned, calculated murder,” he said.

Officials said Wilkinsburg police officers were called to the scene at 10.54pm to find eight people with gunshot wounds.

“It would appear from early examination of the scene that a backyard party/cookout was being held at the rear of the home,” an official press release said. “The ballistic evidence on the scene leads police to believe that two different weapons were discharged from two different people.”

Lieutenant Andrew Schurman of the Allegheny County homicide unit said the gunmen had barged into the party and opened fire in an ambush-style attack.

He said police do not believe anyone at the party fired back.

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“It looks like right now they were all fleeing toward the back door of the residence when the second gunman fired from the side of the yard,” Schurman said. “They all seemed to get caught on the back porch.”

Jessica Shelton said on Thursday that she was the mother of the three siblings killed in the shooting, and an aunt of the two others. She said at a press conference that the family decided to have a cookout because of the nice weather.

“It was a nice day so we just called each other on the phone and said, ‘Hey, we’re having a cookout.’”

Resident Kayla Alexander told WPXI-TV that she heard a barrage of gunshots – more than 20.

Some bullets passed through three different victims, said Chris Taylor, assistant special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Wilkinsburg mayor John Thompson, a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, extended his condolences to the families of the victims. “While details are still unfolding, I can say for certain that there is more we can do to reduce the senseless violence that claims 91 American lives every day – and injures hundreds more,” he said.

Wilkinsburg is a residential neighbourhood of about 16,000 people, 13km (eight miles) east of Pittsburgh. It is a poor suburb known for drug violence, but the particular street the shooting took place on is usually quiet, neighbours said.

James Boyd, 70, has lived just three doors away from the home where the shooting took place for 24 years and hear the attack take place. “I thought it was maybe the pipes bursting. But then we realised it was gunshots,” Boyd told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, noting that gunfire “went on for almost a minute”.

“We’ve had trouble in this neighbourhood before but never this close to home,” Boyd said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Groups of residents were reported to be gathered on the street, some of them sobbing and saying they had lost family members. Dozens of shell casings littered the pavement of an alleyway near the site, where police were gathering evidence and talking to witnesses.

Vehicles from the medical examiner’s office arrived in the early hours of Thursday to remove the victims’ bodies.



Pennsylvania senator Bob Casey, a Democrat, said the shooting showed the need for action to stop gun violence. “Mourning the loss of life after shooting in Wilkinsburg. We must take action to #stopgunviolence,” he wrote on Twitter.

Katie McGinty, who is running for the state’s other senate seat, said in a statement that the attack show the immediate need for action to stop gun violence.

“We cannot simply grieve for this tragedy, wring our hands, and move on,” McGinty said. “These acts of violence occur far too often in our society. Pennsylvanians demand more of our leaders to fight the scourge of gun violence.”

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.