DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Pittsburgh Mass Shooting

What struck me as odd , other than of course the murder of 6 people , was the level of planning that went into this attack . To me this level of calculated brutality is something new to the scene . The victims were corralled and dispatched with head shots which means the shooter was dedicated to his objective . The dead were all members of a single family and that cannot be coincidence can it ? Seems like something that a cartel would do not your run of the mill gang bangers looking to settle some small beef . Who knows though in today's world it may turn out to be something as simple as a neighbor angry about the noise of a late night BBQ . Smh



Police on Thursday said they were hunting for two gunmen suspected of killing six at a backyard cookout in a Pittsburgh suburb, with one attacker using a high-velocity rifle to shoot his victims in the head as they were driven in his direction.



Authorities initially said five people died, but added Thursday afteroon that the death of an 8-month-old fetus was ruled a homicide.

"The murders were planned. They were calculated, brutal," District Attorney Stephen Zappala said of the Wednesday nighttime shootings in Wilkinsburg.



Allegheny County detectives look over the scene of a shooting on Thursday, March 10, 2016 in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting late Wednesday and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)Expand / Contract
Allegheny County detectives look over the scene of a shooting on Thursday, March 10, 2016 in Wilkinsburg, Pa. Police say multiple people were killed in the shooting late Wednesday and several were injured in suburban Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
The unnamed gunmen appeared to have targeted one or two of the victims, said Zappala, who added that they hadn't ruled out drugs as a motive.

Four women, one of them pregnant, and a man were killed as they rushed toward the back porch and an alleyway to seek cover as a gunman fired a .40-caliber pistol at as many as 15 adults who were playing cards and having a late-night cookout in the yard.


That steered the victims toward the rear porch and door of the house, where an accomplice armed with a 7.62 mm rifle similar to an AK-47 shot them from behind a chain-link fence less than 10 feet from the porch, Zappala said.

Neither weapon has been found.

The man with the rifle aimed high throughout the barrage of bullets. Four of the dead were found on the tiny back porch.


"They were all head shots," Zappala said.

The dead included three siblings, Brittany Powell, 27, who lived at the home; Jerry Shelton, 35; and Chanetta Powell, 25. The other two were Shada Mahone, 26, and Tina Shelton, 37.

Zappala said Brittany Powell was pregnant and due to give birth in May.

"It looks like right now they were all fleeing toward the back door of the residence when the second gunman fired from the side of the yard," said Lt. Andrew Schurman of the Allegheny County homicide unit. "They all seemed to get caught on the back porch."

Carl Morris and his son, Robert, were getting ready to leave their house across the street when they heard a volley of three shots, a pause, then gunfire lasting more than a minute.

Robert Morris said he saw children run onto the small back porch and heard someone scream, "Mommy, Mommy!"

"It was terrible," the younger Morris said.

The Morrises said Brittany Powell lived at the home with a daughter who was about 6 or 7. They said the house was considered a "safe haven" in the neighborhood.

The backyard is about 30 feet by 50 feet. Police said they found one pile of shell casings just outside the yard in an alley, where they believe the .40-caliber pistol was fired, Zappala said. They found more shells along a fence that separates the house from a neighbor's yard, which is where Zappala said the rifle was fired.

Bullet holes were visible Thursday around the porch addition. Tables and chairs, some tipped over, remained in the backyard, signs of a party quickly abandoned.

The suspects fled on foot.

Wilkinsburg is a poorer, largely blighted suburb just east of Pittsburgh that is known for drug trafficking and gun violence. But neighbors described the street on which the shooting occurred as generally quiet.

After the shooting, groups of residents gathered on the street, some of them sobbing and saying they lost family members.

Mike Jones, 57, has lived in a duplex on a small hill overlooking the alley and backyard where the shooting occurred.

Although Wilkinsburg has a reputation for violence, Jones said it has been rare in his neighborhood, which is about a block off a major street about a half-mile from Interstate 376, the major commuter artery through Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs.

"This is unheard of," Jones said, shaking his head as homicide detectives milled about in the yard and alley. "It doesn't happen around here."

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald urged witnesses to step forward, saying that "can be our first step to stopping the violence in our communities."

"As a community, we must say enough is enough," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

*Sigh*

Evil reigns in this world.

My condolences and my prayers to the families and to all involved. It is just sad that the attackers felt that they had the right to take the lives of so many people in such a cold blooded manner.

this thread is strangely dead.

this would've got 20 pages if it was some kids in the suburbs, though.

Yeah. But only if it was a white person shooting a black person. Or a white cop shooting a black suspect.

Wait, that seems odd. If white people shoot blacks, it's all over the news.

I don't know the color of anyone involved in this shooting. So, why isn't it being reported more?

Wonder how many shootings are happening in Chicago tonight. How many will make the national news.

regardless of whatever it is you're saying, the point still stands that this thread hasn't got nearly the responses that other mass shootings have gotten.

So they don't even know the motive behind this?

typically something like this, there's a ton of motives.

either drug related, or somebody who didn't want to be involved in a gang, and thus needed to be taken out.

there's other factors, but....yea.

There was a gang related killing of an 8 year old out here this week (which also got very little pub outside Chicago).

The kid was a revenge kill because the father had killed someone.

Chicago is a great city to live in, but boy does it have an ugly side that gets brushed off after a quick glance..

This Pittsburgh story is so sad.

It is sad. I've read stories that even the Chicago Police are reluctant to act for fear of being the next "viral" video.

The cops can't win for losing.

Yeah, it's always that way. Just like Albany State, huh?

yes, this thread is dead compared to other mass shooting threads.

if you're trying to imply anything else, have at it.

Implying? That's interesting, especially since you said this:



Nope, no implications there. LOL

ok.

it doesn't change the fact that my statement is true.

is that what you have a problem with? the threads prove me right. so what's point are you trying to make?

There wasn't much talk about the school shooting, either. That kinda surprised me, too.

I just don't think you should make this a racial issue, especially considering the way things are going. And that is why I mentioned Albany State.

well, i'm not the authority on mass shootings.

as far as albany state, the only thing about shootings i see is from 2011.

i wasn't on this board in 2011, so i dunno why you would bring it up.

so what shooting happened with albany state?

There wasn't.

I made my point. Have a good one....

you didn't make any point.

you brought up something unrelated to mass shootings.

i'm sure you gave yourself a mental high five, but you didn't actually make any point.

As our Society continues to crumble, killings will increase and we will become numb to them.

Once our Society has finally crossed the line in its collapse, it will be the strong who rule the rest of us.

As far as Race is concerned where I live, which is near DC, Black People are killing each other almost every day. Fathers killing their kids, husbands and boyfriends killing their wives and girlfriends. Killing strangers, killing people they know, random shootings, on and on. Almost every day.

The News doesn't even give a reason for the killings anymore.

It is just part of life, a daily occurrence.

The point that I am making here is I have seen through my 60 years of life that most things begin and end with the Black Race in this Country.

Our music, how we dress, the shoes we wear, the things we say, the drug scene in the 60's, the drug culture, the disintegration of the family unit. And more.

As Society crumbles, I feel we are seeing it with the Black Race first, soon enough, it will be all of us.

I pray on it all daily.

I thought Swish's comments were based off of race and tried to defuse it, but man, you come across as a racist. You are NOT helping.

I just don't get why so many people do not want the races to get along? So many are always trying to start dissension. <<sigh>>

Call names all you want, I just say what I see around me and share observations from my life.

I am not the only one who sees this happening around them.

If you prefer PC speak, let me know ahead of time please.

I just got on Swish for the same thing. My stance has nothing to do w/taking sides. You get that. Nothing!

I don't want "sides." I want us to all get along and when people try to make it about sides, it only widens the divide.

That is not a good thing for:

--the populace

--the country

--society

We need to come together rather than accentuating the negatives.

I admit that it upsets me when guys like you can make qualifying statements about blacks. That is so wrong. Judge the man by his actions, not the color of his skin. And it upsets me when guys like Swish try to make a non-racial tragedy a racial issue by implying that no one cares about blacks, but if it were white kids, everyone would care.

You are both full of crap!!!

Let's try to get along. Stop w/the hate.

i don't hate anybody.

so i'll stop doing whatever it is you claim i'm doing when you stop talking out the side of your neck.

you can cry and complain all you want, the simple fact is that when suburbia gets shot up, we got 20+ pages, but look at this thread: we're arguing over who is implying what instead of the actual topic.

i, for one, am pretty annoyed that you of all people, run your mouth, then try to end it with "stop the hate", when you're one of the biggest instigators on this board.

and before anybody cries, yes, i'm right there with this guy.

so what you perceive as hate is what i see as me trying to get the people on this board to understand that how they interact with people daily isn't the same for everybody. that their daily problems in life aren't the same as somebody else.

that just because how they experience life doesn't mean that's how life is experienced from others.

so yea, as much as i disagree with 40, he's right. if you got a problem, and what the PC version, i'll be more than happy to give it to you.

40 and i don't baby each other.

You goofy or what? Who is picking sides here? I am talking about our Society falling apart. OUR SOCIETY, no sides there!

We ARE all in this together.

People are slaughtering each other every day in my area and you call it accentuating the negative.

Reality calling...

You can talk tough, Swish. That's fine.

But, in my opinion, people like you and 40 are not helping the problem.

I will stand by my claim that people should unite and try to work through problems rather than throwing stones at one another and widening the divide.

Here, read this: [not that you would take the time to, since your mind is made up, but others might enjoy it]

I get it now Swish, Vers has been waiting all day to use that Poem of his in a post and had to first set us up so he could use it.

I feel so used. I gotta cry now.

and just how are we suppose to unite and work through problems if we don't even know what the problems are?

how am i suppose to come to an understanding with anybody on this board if i don't even now what they're beefing about?

how are they suppose to understand where i'm coming from if they don't know what problems i have?

are you now implying that we are all psychics? we can read each other thoughts?

what program in the matrix teaches me that? i miss that training.

the poem is fine if it applied to anybody on here.

Vers constantly mistakes passion for hate.

until he figures out how to separate the two, him and other posters will never figure out where i'm coming from.

I am not trying to argue w/either of you. I just don't get how you don't get this:



Please explain.

which i responded with:


nobody is arguing with your statement. what you fail to realize is that in order to get to your unity part, the people have to understand each other's grievances in the first place.

ya know, actual discussion.

By the way, what is the Racial significance of the Pittsburgh shooting anyway? Was everybody Black, White or what?

It is awful what happened. Sounds like a hit to me so far.

We ALL know the grievances, Swish!!!

Stop being obtuse on purpose. You are not that dumb.

I am saying this as your big brother.....let go of the hate.

See what you made me do? You, and others, will invariably make fun of that comment and once again, my message of trying to unite rather than divide will be lost in the mix of past resentments.

they were black.

i haven't seen much updates, but just off of what typically happens, this was most likely gang related, probably drug related as well.

the way they killed the people was less of a random shooting and clearly more of a planned hit. the way the shooters executed their plan says they've probably done this before.

and i'm asking you for the hundredth time, what hate?

hate would imply that i hate white people.

that's false.

so what hate? once again, until you figure out how to separate what hatred and passion, then you will never understand where i'm coming from.

how can i unite and come to an understanding with you when i'm specifically telling you i'm not hating anybody, but you're trying to tell me i am?

we can't even get past the basics, and you wanna unite on a race related issue? good luck with that.

Swish...........before I answer your question, I have to ask one of my own. Your answer will tell me if I should bother answering your question or not.

Do you think I am ignorant?

Just terrible.

I don't understand who Vers is trying to unite, Black and White?

If that is it, I don't understand. How can Black and White unite in my area when the Black community is slaughtering each other every day and night? Everybody is too scared to talk unity.

My best friend on this planet is a Black man and he and I are united in fear of what is going on downtown. We both agree it is Society falling apart. Are we wrong?

Yeah, you are wrong for making stupid qualifying statements that the black community is slaughtering one another.

I have taught in the black community for most of my professional career and most of them are hard-working, Christian, well-meaning people that are worthy of respect and not some stupid, racist generalizations like the one you just provided.

with regards to the world, specifically this country and race? no.

with regards to understanding MY personal feelings? yes.

Okay.

You know I want to help you, right?

with regards to what?

and why do you sound like my shrink? she said the same stuff when i first started going.