PITTSBURGH (AP) — An officer responded to a noise complaint at a Pittsburgh home where a party was going on about an hour and a half before gunfire erupted at the rally, police said Monday after the shooting of the weekend that left two 17 year olds. dead and at least eight others injured.
An officer came to the house around 11 p.m. Saturday and asked for the owner, and a man came downstairs and met the officer at the door. He was asked to turn the music down and he did, police said in a statement.
“The officer told her that if the police were called back to the address again, they would have to shut down the party,” the police statement read. report was needed.”
Police Chief Scott Schubert told reporters midday Sunday that hundreds of people – the “vast majority” of them minors – had gathered at the short-term rental property. The police statement states that “the habitable and visible part of the house where the party was held is on the second floor, out of sight of the door”.
Shortly after 12:30 p.m. Sunday, some sort of altercation ensued and gunfire erupted inside and outside the rental home, “and potentially back and forth,” Schubert said Sunday. Casings found at the scene indicated that handguns and a rifle had been used, he said, and police believe there were multiple shooters.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross, both 17, were killed. Eight people were treated for gunshot wounds and others were injured trying to escape, Schubert said, including two who broke their bones after jumping from windows. One victim was injured after a car was “shot down”, Schubert said. Allegheny General Health said only one person remained hospitalized Monday in serious condition. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said two more people remain hospitalized in its system.
ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection and warning system, said more than 90 shots were fired, and Schubert said “we know there was a lot more than that between the interior of the structure and the outside”. Police were processing evidence at no less than eight separate crime scenes spanning a few blocks around the rental home. No arrests were immediately reported, but Schubert said “it’s our top priority to find out who did this and get them off the streets.”
Airbnb spokesman Ben Breit confirmed the home was rented through the company and said the renter, who should have been 18 or older, received a lifetime ban. Breit said Airbnb is cooperating with authorities.