One dead, one in custody after shooting at McCandless apartment complex
MCCANDLESS (KDKA) - Allegheny County police said a 39-year-old man is dead, and another is in custody after a shooting in McCandless Saturday morning.
The victim was identified Sunday as Richard Coward.
The man in custody, a 41-year-old, surrendered to police while remaining on the phone with 9-1-1, police later said via a press release.
A source close to the case told KDKA a mom and one of her adult sons just moved into a first-floor apartment at Nineteen North Apartments last week. They said another adult son showed up, and shots rang out. It's unclear who shot who.
It will be hard for Nate Schweitzer to forget what happened in the apartment below him.
"Every time I walk into our building, it's going to cross my mind, I feel like," Nate said.
It started when he heard two to three loud bangs.
"Woke me up, I mean, dead out of my sleep, and really just didn't think anything of it at the moment," Nate said.
He went back to bed. Then, around 1:45 p.m., Nate got an email from the property manager at the apartment complex.
"I got a FaceTime from my girlfriend, and she's just like panicking; she's worried," Nate said.
Police said they were called to respond just after 7 a.m. to the McCandless complex off Perry Highway, next to the north campus of Community College of Allegheny County.
When first responders arrived, they found a man who was shot. Investigators pronounced him dead on the scene and took another man into custody.
Kathy Schweitzer, who isn't related to Nate, lives two floors up from the scene of the crime. She's concerned.
"I saw them arresting the gentleman. The mother was there. She was standing there crying. There was a bunch of police everywhere," Kathy said. "I've lived here a lot of years, 13 years. There's been other incidences that happened here, but not a murder."
The circumstances behind the shooting are under investigation, but in the letter from Morgan Properties, the property manager said it was an isolated incident. They also say there will be an increased police presence at the apartments.
Either way, folks like Kathy and Nate are still shaken up, questioning if they should move as they take things day by day.
"It just kind of puts it into perspective, just like anything could happen," Nate said. "We just hope for the best and hope that things can kind of get back to normal, we can all move forward, and all move past this appropriately."
County police told KDKA late Saturday afternoon they have yet to file charges as detectives are consulting with the district attorney's office.
