Allegheny County police charge 2 teenagers in connection with shots fired incident in North Braddock
Allegheny County police have charged two teenagers in connection with a shots-fired incident in North Braddock.
The Eastern Regional Mon-Valley Police Department was dispatched just after 1:30 p.m. on May 4 to the 700 block of 6th Street after receiving reports of shots fired.
Responding officers determined that an occupied vehicle was shot at and hit multiple times, but no one was injured.
The Eastern Regional Mon-Valley Police Department requested the assistance of the Allegheny County Police Department's General Investigations Unit to initiate a larger investigation.
County detectives determined that the incident began in Braddock Borough. The suspects' vehicle was reported stolen from North Huntingdon Township but recovered in Pittsburgh at approximately 7:30 p.m. on May 4, according to a news release from the Allegheny County Police Department.
According to the criminal complaint, the incident began when the victims were fixing a damaged gun violence memorial in Braddock.
The group fixing the memorial saw a group in another vehicle staring at them before the victims got in their car and drove off. The suspects' car followed the victims and eventually shot at them, the criminal complaint adds.
Other criminal complaints link the two suspects, 15-year-old Nasir Williams and 17-year-old Jmeire Estes, to multiple other shots-fired incidents.
North Braddock Mayor Cletus Lee spoke with KDKA-TV on Saturday, praising the police response and calling the incident unfortunate.
"The tragedy is two young men, 15 and 17 who kind of messed up their lives for some time, and they don't understand the significance of what could have actually happened if they would have shot and killed someone," Lee said. "And I think it's imperative for people to know, like, it's important that we need to start taking lives more seriously, implementing more of a severe crime sentence for individuals."
On May 9, county detectives, Eastern Regional Mon-Valley police, and North Versailles Township police executed a warrant on Maple Street in East Pittsburgh, where Estes was taken into custody. Detectives also recovered four firearms from where Estes was taken into custody.
Pittsburgh police, in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service, took Williams into custody on May 9 in Pittsburgh. Williams was found to have a stolen firearm at the time of his arrest, the release added.
Williams and Estes will be charged as adults, county police said after conferring with the district attorney's office.
Williams and Estes face multiple charges, including aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a minor, recklessly endangering another person, and criminal conspiracy.
