Family: Man killed trying to break into Uniontown home is relative of young woman shot inside
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (KDKA) - Uniontown police said what started as a home invasion led to a shooting Saturday, striking two people, killing a man trying to break in, and seriously hurting a young woman inside.
The woman's aunt told KDKA her niece is undergoing surgery, and that the two people shot are related.
Christina Craggette is still processing the moment she saw her niece, Adrieonna Fitzgerald, 19, on a stretcher after she was shot.
"That's like my baby, you know, I helped raise her," Craggette said. "It was hard seeing her in pain, knowing that you can't do nothing about it."
Craggette said Adrieonna was the female shot during what police said was an apparent home invasion at the apartment complex at Pershing Court.
First responders were called to respond to an apartment unit at the complex around 2:20 p.m.
Police said a 23-year-old male and a female, Adrieonna, were in the unit when two to three people tried to enter the home by force.
Bullets went flying.
Investigators said one of the three people trying to break in died, 19-year-old Elijah Fitzgerald.
Adrieonna was shot in the leg and flown to the hospital. Craggette said a bullet went through one leg and exited another.
Evelyn Harris heard the gunshots.
"I heard boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom," Harris said.
She, like Michelle DeShields, thought the sound was fireworks, but then they saw police swarm the neighborhood.
"They had their guns out, and they were pointing it at the unit," DeShields said.
DeShields said she heard police call for a man to come out with his hands up. Eventually, she saw officers pull him out. At the same time, she heard the man say, 'He didn't do it,' and that he called 911.
Police said that was the male inside the home at the time of the invasion. They took him into custody, questioned him, and let him go pending further investigation.
"We need to figure out a way to get people that have young kids, their parents, their aunties, uncles, whoever, everybody come together as a community and figure out a solution, so this can stop," DeShields said.
The circumstances behind the shooting remain unclear, but folks want answers.
"Parents are burying their kids; you know, it's supposed to be the other way around," Craggette said. "I wouldn't want nobody, you know, to have to feel that pain, but unfortunately, another family is feeling that pain right now of somebody being deceased, and it's sad."
Police are looking for the two other people involved in the home invasion. It's unclear who fired the gunshots, but they say it appears there were multiple shooters.
Sources told KDKA Adrieonna and another female, who wasn't home, lived in the apartment unit.
Police are viewing surveillance and are in the process of talking to witnesses.
If you have any information about what happened, you're asked to call (724) 430-2929.
