Oct. 09--Two 15-year-old boys were arrested Monday after police said they lured a Verona man to a McKees Rocks alley under the guise of a drug deal, where he was robbed and fatally shot in June.
Lavar Whitely and Dimitri Humphrey are charged as adults with homicide, robbery, conspiracy and weapons violations in the death of 19-year-old Scott King. Christopher West, 18, of McKees Rocks was arrested last week on the same charges.
Lavar was already at a juvenile detention facility on unrelated charges. Dimitri was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, and is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.
In a criminal complaint, police said Lavar told a fellow inmate that he, Dimitri and Mr. West had robbed someone in Stowe two days before the shooting, making off with the person's iPhone. Soon thereafter, they got a text message from Mr. King, saying that he had marijuana for sale.
Posing as the iPhone's owner, they began corresponding with Mr. King and arranged to meet him in White Alley so they could buy marijuana in the early morning hours of June 15. Lavar remained behind at Mr. West's house.
Lavar told the inmate, whom police declined to identify, that Mr. West got into the backseat of Mr. King's car while Dimitri hid in the alley. Dimitri then ran up to the car with a gun drawn, Lavar recounted to the inmate, and told him it was a robbery.
Mr. King began driving away, but both Dimitri and Mr. West opened fire, the inmate told police, and crashed his car. The two took the marijuana and then met Lavar back at Mr. West's house.
Mr. King was found slumped over the wheel of the car with a gunshot wound to the torso. He was taken to Allegheny General Hospital, where he later died.
Other unnamed witnesses in the complaint, who were with the trio the night of the killing, reported watching the three arrange to meet Mr. King via text message. One watched Dimitri, also known as "Meech," pull his hooded sweatshirt over his face and Mr. West put on a face mask and head out the back door.
A witness reported hearing gunshots after the two left and watching them return breathless, with guns in their hands. One witness then rode with Mr. West to River Road, where he threw a cell phone out the window.
Lavar told the inmate that Dimitri and Mr. West then washed their clothes and cleaned the guns, selling them on the North Side the next week.
Lavar and Dimitri were awaiting arraignment Monday. Mr. West remains in the Allegheny County Jail without bond and faces a preliminary hearing Friday.
Moriah Balingit: [email protected] or 412-263-2533. Twitter: @MoriahBee.
Copyright 2012 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
