PITTSBURGH — The scale of the mass shooting at a North Side Airbnb early Sunday remained apparent Monday morning. Bullet holes in the building that hosted about 200 people — many of them underage — and surrounding structures and cars laid bare a chaotic scene, one in which two 17-year-olds were killed and several others were hurt, either struck by gunfire or injured as they escaped for their lives.
For a large portion of Easter Sunday, Pittsburgh made national and international headlines as the city became the focal point of America’s escalating gun violence crisis.
Mathew Steffy-Ross, of Pitcairn, and Jaiden Brown, whose home address was not listed by the medical examiner, were identified as the two who were killed when, according to police, more than 90 shots rang out in a chaotic scene inside the Airbnb and on surrounding streets as the crowd ran for cover.
Eight other people were shot around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, police said, and five more suffered injuries from jumping out of windows, falling down steps or seeking cover while fleeing the house near the intersection of Suismon Street and Madison Avenue.
Chief Schubert, in an interview with CNN on Monday morning, said police still didn’t have any suspects. He said some people from the party came forward, but he pleaded for more assistance, given the number of people who likely would have information because of the size of the party.
“When you have that many people there, they need to think about the fact that this could be friends [who were shot],” the chief said. “One person shot, one person killed is too many, but we’re very fortunate there weren’t more people shot and killed in that incident.”
Asked whether an incident of this magnitude has caused the department to reassess its efforts in curbing gun violence around the city, Chief Schubert said officials are “always reassessing” and that it remains a primary goal to remove shooters from city streets.
“We’re focused with everything we have,” he said.
Chief Schubert said Sunday that shell casings from around the area of the shooting indicated there were multiple firearms used during the melee and that officials believe there were multiple shooters.
“We’re not going to sleep until we get who did this,” the chief said. “This shouldn’t have happened. We’re sick about it. We’re going to do everything we can to get those responsible for it.”
Investigators look at a car that was struck by bullets during a shooting at an Airbnb rental property across the street in the 800 block of Suismon Street on Sunday, April 17, 2022, in East Allegheny.
He described the scene after the shots rang out as “very chaotic” and noted that the ShotSpotter monitoring system reported more than 90 rounds of gunfire.
Mayor Ed Gainey, in a statement Sunday afternoon, similarly said the city is “using all available resources” to investigate the shooting.
He said some community members have come forward with information for police and urged anyone else who knows anything about it to contact the Major Crimes office at 412-323-7161.
“At least 10 gunshot victims, two lives lost, and hundreds of lives forever changed, because we have yet to pass meaningful legislation to lessen the amount of guns in our streets or provide the much-needed resources to communities desperately need,” the mayor said. “The time is now for us to move with a sense of urgency to bring justice to the victims and peace to our city.”
Of the seven patients treated by AHN at Allegheny General Hospital, four patients were discharged and one remains in serious condition, hospital spokesperson Stephanie Waite said. Two of the seven treated at AGH were the 17-year-olds, who died at the hospital.
A UPMC spokesperson Monday morning said that at least two remained hospitalized in their system.
Pittsburgh Public Schools said four of its students were among those injured — though the district did not identify how seriously — and that others may have been at the scene. The district’s schools were operating on a modified lockdown Monday, meaning students are required to stay inside the school and only previously approved visitors may enter school buildings.
A neighbor who lives near the scene described the large party as “chaos,” with cars flooding the street around 11 p.m. Saturday and partygoers forming a line outside the apartment as they waited to get in.
“It was like a club,” said Mitchell Wilston, 30. “There was a line of people to get in [stretching] to the corner here. It was so clearly underage kids. These kids looked like they were 14.”
Surveillance footage from Mr. Wilston’s security system obtained by the Washington Post appears to show partygoers on Suismon Street and a Pittsburgh police officer who had been parked in front of the building driving away around 11 p.m. Saturday.
Chief Schubert, when asked about police being on the scene earlier in the evening, said he wasn’t aware of officers being there prior to the report of gunfire. When asked if neighbors had called to complain, which may have prompted a police presence, Chief Schubert said he would “have to look into that.”
Sunday’s shooting was the fourth in less than 30 hours within city limits and the worst mass shooting in Pittsburgh since the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Squirrel Hill. It was also the third mass shooting in the U.S. within 24 hours on Easter weekend.
A man was killed in a shooting around 2 a.m. Saturday in Marshall-Shadeland, another North Side neighborhood. In a separate shooting Saturday afternoon, three people were shot in the city’s East Hills neighborhood; two were transported to a hospital in critical condition.
On Friday night, a man was injured in a shooting in the Hill District. Earlier in the week, three men were injured when at least 26 rounds were fired in the Hill District.
Nationally, two more mass shootings occurred over the weekend, both in South Carolina. Ten people were shot at a Columbia mall Saturday evening, and nine people were shot and injured in Hampton County on Sunday.
In the city of Pittsburgh, 68 people have been shot since the start of 2022, including 20 who were killed, according to a Post-Gazette tally of police blotter entries.
As of April 17, 2021, 51 people had been shot in Pittsburgh, 15 of them fatally, according to a Post-Gazette tally.
