Two men were in critical condition and a woman was in stable condition, police said. Police recovered 49 bullet casings from two guns at the scene.
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According to Allegheny County Police, five people are dead after the shooting at a home in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania.
Hazel Way, the alley behind the house, had at least 40 evidence markers. The woman died from her injuries at UPMC Mercy. The other two women killed were her nieces, Shelton said, and a son was wounded. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting late Wednesday and several were i. Chanetta Powell was eight months pregnant, Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt told reporters.
Zappala said that the killings may have been retaliatory and that investigators were looking into whether the attack was drug-related. Three females and one male died at the scene and an additional four partygoers were transported to local hospitals.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald says if violence is to be stopped, witnesses need to come forward.
Police do not believe anyone at the party fired back, and a lot of them got caught in the crossfire fleeing towards the back door when the second gunman fired from the side of the yard.
Jessica Shelton called the shooting a massacre that killed her son Jerry Shelton and two daughters, Brittany Powell and Chanetta Powell, who was eight months pregnant.
Robert Morris said he saw children run onto the small back porch and heard someone scream, “Mommy, Mommy!”
“We’re not optimistic about one of the people [who is] hospitalized right now, so we probably lost seven people”, he said after touring the scene of the shooting. They said the house was considered a “safe haven” in the neighborhood.
The yard is about 30 feet wide by 50 feet deep.
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One of the dead, Tina Shelton, was a mother of five who held down three jobs and was encouraged by family members to attend the barbecue as a way to relax after work, her father Vernes Pugh and other relatives told a TV station. They found more shells along a fence that separates the house from a neighbor’s yard, which is where Zappala said the rifle was sacked.
