Pittsburgh man gets at least 4 years in prison for killing girlfriend's unborn baby
A Perry South man will serve four to 10 years in state prison after pleading guilty to shooting his girlfriend and killing her unborn child on Tuesday.
Andrai Russell, 20, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter of an unborn child and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Russell was already charged with domestic violence counts when, police said, he shot his girlfriend on Sept. 5 at an apartment complex on Center Street in Wilkinsburg.
Police received a 911 call about 12:20 p.m. for a pregnant woman who had been shot in her abdomen. She told police Russell was the shooter and was still in her apartment, the criminal complaint said.
Although Russell was gone, police did find a semi-automatic handgun there.
Security footage from the scene showed Russell running away.
He was arrested Sept. 30 at Sandalwood Apartments in Allegheny Township.
He previously was charged in 2019 with simple assault and strangulation involving the same victim. The state court records keeping system no longer shows those charges. It is unclear what the outcome was.
Russell must also serve five years of probation upon his release from prison.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of “Death by Cyanide.” She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.