Police looking for a motive in fatal Homewood shooting
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Greg Hall stood outside his aunt's front door on North Murtland Street in Homewood yesterday and talked about feuding young men and the proliferation of guns and how his cousin was cut down the night before in a spray of bullets that sounded like firecrackers.
Franklin Sheffey Jr.As well-spoken as he was, his words could not be as telling as the images surrounding him:
Bullet holes in the windows, in the front door, in the refrigerator and the dryer.
Blue flowers bundled in a bouquet on the front steps, next to a votive candle in a makeshift memorial.
Spatters of blood on the sidewalk that had withstood the night's heavy rains.
Pittsburgh police said a man fired an assault-style rifle Wednesday night at a group of people in front of the home at 1402 N. Murtland St., killing one and wounding two others. By the positions of the 25 shell casings recovered, detectives surmise the gunman was walking down Mount Vernon Street toward Murtland as he fired.
"There's bullets all through here," Mr. Hall, 54, said.
His cousin, Allen Edmonds, 18, was on the receiving end of those bullets, along with an unidentified 25-year-old man and next-door neighbor Franklin Sheffey Jr., 16.
Martha Rial, Post-GazetteFamily and friends have left flowers and other items on the steps of the house on North Murtland Street where Franklin Sheffey Jr. was shot Wednesday.
Click photo for larger image.
Franklin was shot in the head and neck and pronounced dead at the scene. Mr. Edmonds was hit in the leg and hand. The other man was shot three times, in the hip and forearm. Both survivors were in stable condition at UPMC Presbyterian.
It is believed there was only one shooter, but whether he advanced alone upon the group on Murtland is unclear.
Someone among the victims was certainly targeted, but police are not sure who. Homicide detectives yesterday interviewed a fourth person who was in the group during the incident but escaped unscathed.
"We're not sure at this point what the motive is," Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said. "Some cars fled the scene, but we're unsure if any of them are the suspect or suspects."
Franklin had knocked on Mr. Edmonds' door when the shooting started. Mr. Hall said Mr. Edmonds was wounded while inside the house.
Mr. Hall said he had just gone for a walk. His aunt, Martha Johnson -- Mr. Edmonds' grandmother -- was inside the house and had just gone upstairs. Her daughter was in a chair on the first floor.
When Mr. Hall went out the door, the street was quiet.
"Next thing, everything went to hell," he said. "Whoever did it just popped up from over there somewhere."
In response to the incident, police beefed up the presence of marked cars in the area and deployed the Street Response Unit along with plainclothes detectives from the East Liberty station.
An officer cruising the neighborhood was attacked as the unit attempted to arrest a man they said was smoking marijuana in the 1400 block of Murtland, police said.
The officers saw some loiterers sipping beer, and one was smoking a joint. As the police unit went to arrest the smoker, someone jumped on the back of an officer.
At least one suspect was subdued with a Taser stun gun. He was taken to a nearby hospital for an examination before he was charged along with four other men in connection with the melee.
None of the officers was hurt, police said.
Pittsburgh Public Schools Police Chief Robert Fadzen noted that the shooting took place just blocks from Westinghouse High School, which is in the 1100 block of Murtland.
On Feb. 21, sophomore Aaron Henderson, 16, of Idlewild Street in Homewood, was critically injured in a drive-by shooting at 7:45 a.m. outside the school's side entrance.
Two suspects, Brandon Murray and Thomas Beck, both 23 and of Inwood Street, have been arrested and will face trial in the Henderson case. They are charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and conspiracy.
"We are obviously going to take some extraordinary steps," Chief Fadzen said, declining to go into specifics. "We are concerned about retaliation. We are concerned about the fact that this young man went to Westinghouse."
Mr. Hall, a native of Homewood, shared those concerns. He discussed how the neighborhood has fractured over the years into small and distinct territories -- demarcations that are at the root of many violent feuds. Demarcations, he said, that don't make any sense.
"They all go to Westinghouse. You play gym together, you have class together, you even argue over the same girl," Mr. Hall said.
"When they leave there and they go to their separate little sections, it's all one neighborhood. It isn't like I'm coming in from Germany or Hong Kong and don't speak your language. We're all together."
He added, however, that when someone crosses from one neighborhood into another, "they want to kill each other."
Correction/Clarification: (Published April 15, 2006)
The photograph above is Franklin Sheffey Jr., who was shot to death Wednesday in Homewood. An incorrect photo accompanied a story about him in April 14, 2006 editions.
First Published April 14, 2006 12:00 am
