Police: Beechview man charged with homicide after shooting

A 23-year-old Beechview man remained in jail Tuesday in connection with a fatal shooting along Banksville Road, Pittsburgh police said.

Connor Cusick Makstutis, 23, is charged with homicide and is in the Allegheny County Jail, according to police.

The man who was killed was identified as Richard William Derkach, 34, of Pittsburgh, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

At 4:48 p.m. Monday, Pittsburgh police responded to several 911 calls about a shooting in the area of Banksville Road and Crane Avenue, in the city’s Banksville neighborhood.

First responders found Derkach in a vehicle at the scene, with a gunshot wound to the chest. He died at 5:55 p.m. at Allegheny General Hospital, according to the medical examiner.

Near the scene, police said they located a city-operated Genetec camera, which captured the entirety of the shooting.

A silver pickup was traveling northbound on Banksville and stopped at the Banksville-Crane intersection, according to a criminal complaint obtained Tuesday by the Tribune-Review. Upon stopping, a dark-colored vehicle stopped behind the truck.

A person, later identified as Derkach, approached the first truck, and the truck pulled forward slightly and then stopped, the criminal complaint said. While walking toward the truck, police said Derkach’s hands could be viewed and appeared to be empty.

It appeared Derkach was speaking to the driver of the vehicle, the criminal complaint said. While near the driver window of the truck, Derkach can be viewed swatting forward and then wincing backward.

He then turned to run back to the direction from which he came, while hunching forward and reaching toward the area of his chest, police said.

Makstutis is awaiting a preliminary hearing Tuesday morning, court records showed.