Downtown Pittsburgh shooting leads to charges against 15-year-old boy
A 15-year-old boy is accused of fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy on Sunday morning in Downtown Pittsburgh, authorities said.
Riley Doubt of Pittsburgh is facing a list of charges, including criminal homicide, in connection with the shooting, which happened in the early hours on Sunday morning in the Cultural District.
Pittsburgh Public Safety said officers were called to Penn Avenue at Seventh Street for reports of a shooting around 12:15 a.m. on Sunday. At the scene, police found a 17-year-old with a gunshot wound to his chest. He was unconscious, officials said.
He was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, Pittsburgh Public Safety said. He later died at the hospital. He was later identified as Alijah Thomas-Hayden.
According to the criminal complaint, Doubt told investigators that there was an issue between him and the victim over the theft of a safe. The two also got into a "tussle" before the shooting, according to the criminal complaint.
Doubt allegedly confessed to the shooting and to trying to throw the gun off the Seventh Street Bridge. Authorities did not release additional information about the relationship between the suspect and the victim.
The 15-year-old boy is charged with criminal homicide, carrying a firearm without a license, possession of a firearm by a minor and tampering with/fabricating physical evidence. According to court records, he is due back in court for his preliminary hearing later this month. He was taken to the Allegheny County Jail.
Pittsburgh police are investigating the deadly shooting.
Curbing youth violence
Pittsburgh City Councilman Khari Mosley warned last month that the city may be forced to take more serious measures to prevent the violence.
"Many of the other cities have already gone to much more Draconian approaches: implementing citywide curfews, and things like that that have been much more heavy-handed," Mosley told KDKA-TV in May. "If these activities continue, there's going to be more and more of a call for more Draconian and stricter solutions."
In a statement to KDKA-TV on Monday, Pittsburgh City Councilman Bobby Wilson said that police and community outreach workers are working together to curb youth violence.
"While no strategy can prevent every incident, this is exactly the kind of focused effort we need to help keep downtown safe and address issues before they become larger problems," the statement said.
