Pittsburgh police arrest teen in Sheraden homicide
A Pittsburgh teenager was charged Monday with opening fire on a group of people at a Sheraden intersection late Friday night, killing one of them.
Malachi Smith, 18, of Pittsburgh’s Fairywood neighborhood, shot Israel Walker-Young, 18, of Pittsburgh, from the tailgate of a silver Dodge pickup that Smith and six others were riding around late Friday night, according to a criminal complaint.
The relationship between the two is unclear.
Pittsburgh police arrested Smith Monday and charged him with criminal homicide and a firearms offense.
Officers were dispatched Friday night to the 600 block of Sherwood Avenue for three separate ShotSpotter alerts, totaling 17 rounds, the complaint said.
They found Walker-Young unresponsive, the complaint said. He had been shot in the chest and leg. First responders rushed Walker-Young to Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side, where doctors pronounced him dead at 10:04 p.m.
City-owned surveillance cameras showed the pickup stop near the intersection of Sheraden Boulevard and Sherwood Avenue around 10 p.m., the complaint said.
Smith fired shots from the truck, and the vehicle drove away, the complaint said. Then, someone ran into a grassy area near the intersection and returned fire before collapsing. The complaint did not identify that person.
Police later spotted the truck on Stafford Street, less than half a mile away, the complaint said.
Several people in the truck ran away, but police grabbed them after a foot chase, according to the complaint.
Smith eluded capture and was not found until Monday, when police arrested him at his Fairywood home.
There were seven people in the truck, including Smith, some of the truck’s passengers told police.
One of the passengers knew the group of people with Walker-Young at the intersection, according to police. That witness, whom investigators did not identify, told police that Smith fired the gun at the group.
Pittsburgh police arrested Smith in February on charges of receiving stolen property and evading arrest.
A district judge released Smith on nonmonetary bail, court records show. His preliminary hearing in that case is scheduled for July 2.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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