Lydia Glenn

News Editor

lmg5921@psu.edu

In Pittsburgh, an officer answered a noise complaint at a house where a party was going on. The officer answered that call about an hour and a half before gunfire broke out at the gathering. 

Police said on Monday that the weekend shooting left two 17-year-olds dead and at least eight other people wounded. 

The officer visited the home at about 11 p.m. on Saturday April 16. The officer asked for the homeowner and a male came downstairs and met the officer at the door. He was asked to turn the music down and did. 

In a statement, “the officer told him if police were called back to the address again they would have to shut the party down. There were no further noise complaint or ordinance calls to the address. The call was cleared and no further report was needed.”

Police Chief Scott Schubert told media on Sunday that the hundreds of people – the “vast majority” of them minors – had gathered at the short-term rental property. 

The police statement also stated that “the habitable and visible part of the house where the party was held is on the second floor, out of view of the door.” 

Shortly after 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, some kind of altercation broke out and gunfire ensued both inside and outside the rental home, “and potentially back and forth,” said Schubert. 

Bullet casings found at the scene indicated handguns and one rifle were used. Police stated that they believed there were multiple shooters. 

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said that Jaiden Brown and Matthew Steffy-Ross, both 17, were killed. 

Eight people were treated for gunshot wounds and others were injured while trying to escape. Schubert stated that two people broke bones after jumping from windows. One victim was injured after a car was “shot up”. 

Allegheny General Health said only one person remained hospitalized and in serious condition. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said two other people remained hospitalized.

ShotSpotter which is a gunshot detection and alert system, indicated more than 90 rounds were fired. Schubert said, “we know there was a lot more than that between inside the structure and outside.”

Police were processing evidence at as many as eight separate crime scenes spanning a few blocks around the rental home. No arrests were immediately reported, but Schubert said that “it is our top priority to find out who did this and get them off the street.”

Airbnb spokesperson Ben Breit confirmed the house has been rented through the company. He also stated that the person who booked the property would have to be 18 years of age or older. The booker of the property received a lifetime ban after this incident.