Allegheny County Sheriff’s deputies had a hunch that the girlfriend of a wanted fugitive was lying to them Tuesday morning, sparking an apartment complexwide search in Pitcairn that ended in an arrest, authorities said.
Accorie Wilder-Mack, 22, has been wanted since March 21 in connection with the robbery and shooting of an Olive Garden employee in Monroeville earlier that month.
According to the charges filed against Wilder-Mack, he showed up at the Italian restaurant near the Monroeville Mall shortly before 9:30 p.m. and began asking to use “Matt’s discount.” Employees told police that Wilder-Mack continued to loiter in the lobby even after he was told no one named Matt worked there, and he was eventually asked to leave.
Wilder-Mack left, according to the criminal complaint, and went to a side door and lured the employee who opened it out to a parked car. Wilder-Mack produced a gun, police said, and a struggle over the gun ensued.
The victim got a hold of the gun and ran back to the restaurant.
Police said that as he was running, an accomplice of Wilder-Mack shot him in the leg.
Wilder-Mack allegedly followed the victim back into the restaurant lobby and took back the gun, police said.
Sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday received a tip that Wilder-Mack was staying with his girlfriend at her Pitcairn apartment. Deputies didn’t find himthere, authorities said.
Sheriff Kevin Kraus said deputies were suspicious of the woman’s story, and they noticed some of Wilder-Mack’s belongings in the apartment. That prompted a complexwide search, and deputies ultimately found Wilder-Mack hiding in an adjacent apartment that was under construction.
Wilder-Mack, in connection with the March 12 shooting, is charged with aggravated assault, robbery, conspiracy, carrying a firearm without a license, theft, simple assault and defiant trespass.
