Dec. 19--After gunfire at a sweet 16 party early Sunday killed one partygoer and wounded at least seven, Duquesne police urged neighbor Edmund Lewandowski to move from the troubled street.
It's not the first time.
"Why should I go?" Lewandowski, 89, asked as he prepared to go to church. "Maybe other people need to go."
Duquesne Mayor Phillip Krivacek, who oversees the city police department, said about 40 people were at the party in a home on South Fifth Street when, shortly after midnight, "some guy came in the back door unannounced and started firing."
Drew Henderson-Bracey, 18, of Duquesne died from multiple gunshot wounds, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said. Another adult and six juveniles also were shot. One of the minors, a girl, was critically injured. Authorities did not consider any of the other injuries to be life-threatening. They did not identify the wounded.
"I was paralyzed with fear," said Chynna Newby, 18, of Duquesne, who was grazed in the right pinky finger during the birthday party for friend Destiny Pearson.
Most of the partygoers, like Newby, were in the darkened basement when the shooting occurred.
"Everybody was dancing shoulder to shoulder and having a good time," Newby said. "Then, the shooting started. All I remember seeing is the light from the gun."
Dontez Peoples, 20, of Duquesne said he was on the front porch.
"All of the sudden I just heard people screaming. It turned into chaos real quick," Peoples said. "I never seen anything like it."
Investigators found several guns at the scene. Krivacek did not know what sparked the shooting, and it was not clear how many people fired weapons, or how many shots were fired.
Police have not made any arrests, Krivacek said. County police did not comment.
Some people at the party were drinking alcohol, Peoples said. Those inside the home yesterday declined to comment. Homeowner Ebony Hawkins could not be reached.
Peoples described Henderson-Bracey, a junior at East Allegheny High School, as a longtime friend who liked sports and hanging out. He said Henderson-Bracey was expecting a child. He urged anyone with information to contact police.
"He was a fun-loving kid," said Sharon Henderson, the victim's aunt. "He was the one that kept the family laughing."
Henderson, 35, of Duquesne said her nephew could do a spot-on impersonation of comedian Katt Williams and often made people jump with barking noises that sounded startlingly real.
"It doesn't make sense. He was just being a kid, going to a party, celebrating a neighborhood kid's birthday," Henderson said.
Shootings and other violent incidents have become an almost routine occurrence on the street, neighbors said. Still, the shootings of eight people shocked them.
"I didn't hear any shots or anything like that," said Joseph Mills, who lives across the street from the two-story home in which the shooting occurred. "I figured someone called the cops because there was too much noise coming from the party."
The commotion after the shooting awoke Lewandowski, who said he heard panicked screams and shouting as people scrambled out of the house, which has a giant inflatable Santa Claus, a Nativity scene and a "Reindeer Crossing" sign in its small front yard.
Lewandowski, a former letter carrier who has lived in the neighborhood since 1968, said he is accustomed to such wake-up calls. A couple of years ago, someone shot out a window at his home. Six months after he replaced it, someone shot it out again.
Police fatally shot a man who broke into Hawkins' home in February 2009. Police said a woman inside the home ran to a neighbor's house and called 911 after the intruder kicked in the front door. A responding officer shot him twice in the chest during a struggle.
"Everybody is shocked about what happened. Here's a family having a birthday party, and things just go crazy. It's terrible," Krivacek said. "We don't need that. Police will get to the bottom of this."
Copyright 2011 - The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
