Man charged in connection with fatal shooting in Stowe alley

Kelly Cody had just gotten into a friend’s car Thursday morning in a Stowe alley. She was about to reach for a pack of cigarettes in the center console when a shooter allegedly pulled open the vehicle’s front door and started firing, according to court paperwork filed Friday.

The shooting happened shortly after 8 a.m. in Penn Alley, which runs behind Broadway Street, according to Allegheny County Police. First responders found Cody with a gunshot wound to the left side of her head. She was taken to Allegheny General Hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly before 4:30 p.m.

Police wrote in a criminal complaint they found “a male friend that she was always with” in a store near the shooting scene. The man, 29-year-old Lauren Brown, refused to speak with officers and ran into an area of the store meant only for employees, police said.

When the owner asked that Brown be removed from the store, he took off, pushing past officers and tossing a semi-automatic pistol under a dump truck as he fled, according to the complaint.

Officers used a Taser to stop Brown. He was ultimately taken into custody for a parole violation, though he was later charged with homicide in connection with Cody’s death.

Cody’s friend, identified by police only as a witness, told investigators Cody had just gotten in the passenger side of the witness’s car when the witness “saw the front driver’s side door open and an unknown man … was pointing a gun at (the witness),” according to the complaint.

The witness said the man, later identified as Brown, was waving a gun, and the witness tried to get out of the car, according to the complaint. Brown allegedly hit the witness several times with the gun and then started shooting.

The witness got away, but not before dropping their own firearm on the ground, according to the complaint. The witness turned and saw a man in a red hooded sweatshirt picking up the dropped gun and taking off. The witness soon returned to the car and drove away, police wrote, telling officers they were in fear for their life and “just wanted to get out of the area.”

Brown is charged with homicide, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence and a firearm violation. He is being held in the Allegheny County Jail without bail.