Police searched Thursday for at least two gunmen who opened fire during a backyard party in suburban Pittsburgh, killing five people and wounding three others.
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Police said they were searching for at least two suspects, asking witnesses to come forward about the massacre late Wednesday in the town of Wilkinsburg, six miles (ten kilometers) east of Pittsburgh.
One man and four women were killed by two gunmen who police said worked as a team. A woman who was shot was treated and released from a hospital, Allegheny County spokeswoman Amie Downs said. One of the female victims was eight months pregnant, police said, with the fetus raising the death toll to six. “So now we’re up to 6 homicides at this point”. And she said one of the critically wounded victims is also her son.
Police said shots were fired from an alley, and that when partygoers tried to seek cover in the home, someone on the side or backyard next to the residence opened fired at the back porch, where all four deaths at the scene occurred.
The five were killed late Wednesday during the backyard party in Wilkinsburg. All of the dead were shot in the head, he said.
There was no return fire, police Lt. Andrew Schurman told AFP.
A convicted murder who escaped from a New Mexico prisoner transport van and eluded authorities for almost two days was captured Friday as investigators searched the state for the other inmate who had fled with him, the U.S. “They were all head shots”.
Zappala said retaliation may be a motive or there may be some sort of drug connection. “We’re going to have some public safety people to speak about public safety, gun safety”, Borough Councilwoman Vanessa McCarthy-Johnson said.
Police did not recover the weapons but found 48 bullet casings at the scene.
Ballistic tests indicate the gunmen escaped on foot, with no details offered on where they went, how they knew the victims (if at all) or whether they eventually used a getaway vehicle.
Seven ambulances were called to the scene and a large police force deployed.
Resident Kayla Alexander told WPXI-TV that she heard a barrage of gunshots – more than 20 – in the neighbourhood, which usually is quiet.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr, who visited the shooting scene Thursday morning said the shooting was planned and the worst he has seen during his 18 years as district attorney.
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All of the victims were hit by shots from the rifle, and none from gunfire from the pistol, which “looked like a distraction nearly”, said agent Chris Taylor, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. There was a group of people were “playing cards and cooking out”, according to police.
