15-year-old charged as an adult in connection with Hill District homicide

One teen is charged with killing another as a group of friends were hanging out last month in Pittsburgh’s Bedford Dwellings, according to court paperwork.

Deron Darby, 15, is charged as an adult in connection with the April 24 death of 17-year-old Isaiah Freeman.

Witnesses told police a group of friends met up in the city’s Hill District near Samba Market before heading to Bedford Dwellings to smoke marijuana, according to a criminal complaint.

Two separate witnesses said Darby and Freeman were messing around on the upper landing of a stairwell inside the housing complex when Darby pulled out a handgun with no magazine, according to the complaint.

One witness said he could tell the gun wasn’t loaded because Darby was pulling the trigger and the gun just clicked, police wrote. The witness said Freeman and Darby were play fighting when he heard someone ask to see the gun. The witness said Darby handed the gun to someone, and then he got it back, according to the complaint. The witness said Darby and Freeman continued to play fight when the gun went off, and the entire group took off running.

The group eventually realized Freeman was shot, according to the complaint, and someone called 911. Police said someone drove Freeman to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 8:30 p.m., a little less than an hour after the shooting.

A second witness relayed a similar story, investigators wrote, indicating the group met up near the market and then went inside one of the buildings to smoke. That witness said Darby had a handgun that wasn’t loaded, and he was clicking the empty Glock at the others. The witness said Freeman swatted at the gun, at which point Darby inserted the magazine and fired at Freeman, according to the complaint.

Both identified Darby in surveillance footage from in and around Bedford Dwellings, police said.

Darby spoke to police three days after the shooting, according to the complaint. Accompanied by his mother, he told police that someone within the group he’d never met before was holding the handgun and waving it around. He said there was no clip in the gun, and the person holding it, called Fatman, pulled the trigger just as Freeman stood up, according to the complaint.

Darby said the gun went off, and Freeman was hit in the chest, investigators wrote. Darby said he helped carry Freeman downstairs, at which point he was driven to the hospital.

In addition to homicide, Darby is charged with making a false report to law enforcement and firearms violations. He was arrested Saturday and is being held without bail in Allegheny County Jail.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 18. No attorney was listed for Darby in court paperwork as of Monday afternoon.