Authorities have arrested eight teenagers they say stole dozens of guns in “smash-and-grab” robberies at Pittsburgh-area gun shops last year — weapons later linked to multiple shootings, including the death of a 7-year-old boy.
The suspects, seven of them juveniles, used stolen cars to travel between break-ins at gun shops in Duquesne, Bethel Park and West Mifflin, Allegheny County Police said.
Police said 55 of the stolen guns have been recovered, most within two months of the burglaries.
The weapons have been linked to at least three shootings, including the Jan. 10 killing of Kruz Bailey-Baker, 7, in Pittsburgh’s California-Kirkbride neighborhood, police said.
In that case, police said Kruz and a 9-year-old boy were handling a gun in the basement of a home when it fired. Kruz, a first grader, was shot in the head and later died at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Shootings linked to the stolen guns also occurred in McKees Rocks and Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood, police said.
“We don’t want any illegal guns on the streets — and especially not in the hands of teenagers,” county police Superintendent Christopher Kearns told reporters Thursday.
“Any and all thefts of firearms should be seen as threats to public safety,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a prepared statement. “My office does not intend to treat these crimes as child’s play.”
County police investigated the group for more than a year with the state Attorney General’s Office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives before filing more than 1,400 criminal counts this week.
Police said the crime spree started Jan. 13, 2025, when the teens struck three stores. They stole 56 guns from Allegheny Arms and Gun Works in Bethel Park. Police said they also attempted to burglarize two other federally licensed gun dealers, Greater Pittsburgh Quick Cash in Duquesne and Legion Arms in West Mifflin.
Six days later, the suspects stole 23 guns from a licensed firearms dealer in North Lima, Ohio, a town about nine miles west of the Pennsylvania border, police said.
In March, the group returned to the Duquesne gun shop but an attempted robbery was unsuccessful.
The teens — Chalais Ramey, 19, and seven boys ages 14 to 17 — were taken into custody Wednesday and face charges including participating in a corrupt organization, receiving stolen property, criminal conspiracy and gun possession charges.
The younger suspects are being charged as juveniles.
