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Girl, 13, charged in firefighter's death
Tuesday, July 06, 1999 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh police last night charged a 13-year-old girl with homicide in connection with the June 17 death of city firefighter Paul McGrath.
Nikia Walton of Fleming Avenue, Brighton Heights, was arraigned last night at the Allegheny County coroner's office and then taken to the Allegheny County Jail. A hearing for Walton was set for 10 a.m. July 20.
A second suspect in the case, Jason Allen Best, 17, of Brighton Heights, previously was charged with homicide and arson. A hearing in his case is scheduled for tomorrow.
According to an affidavit filed in support of Walton's arrest, Best told police that Walton supplied him with flammable liquid and a sock. The document said he used the sock to make a firebomb used to start a fire at the former St. John General Hospital on Fleming Avenue.
The affidavit said Monica Dembrowski, 19, also of Fleming Avenue, told police she was with Best, Walton and another boy on the morning of the fire. She told police Best asked them "Does anybody have gas?"
The affidavit said Walton went to her house and returned with a plastic bottled labeled as charcoal fluid and a sock and gave both items to Best.
Best and Walton, the affidavit said, went between buildings of the hospital complex and, when they returned to the other two youths, they no longer had the sock or fluid with them.
McGrath, a 19-year veteran of the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau, suffered a heart attack while he was fighting the fire. Coroner Cyril H. Wecht ruled that the strain of fighting the fire caused McGrath's death, and he ruled his death a homicide.
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