Black hat found at crime scene leads to arrest in McKeesport slaying

DNA from a black hat found last year near a shooting scene in McKeesport led to an arrest Wednesday in the slaying of a man in his car.

Allegheny County Police charged Daemond Artemus, 18, of McKeesport in the May 2, 2024, slaying of Brandon Dean.

Artemus was taken to the Allegheny County Jail and is awaiting arraignment. An attorney for him was not listed Thursday in court records.

McKeesport police were dispatched to Palmgreen Avenue at Douglass Street in McKeesport around 10:25 p.m. Someone had called 911 after hearing gunshots.

Officers found Dean in a blue Honda sedan near that intersection, according to a criminal complaint. He had been shot in the head and was slumped over in the driver’s seat. Authorities pronounced him dead at the scene a short time later.

Police found two spent bullet casings — one on the ground near the passenger door, one in the back seat of the car, the complaint said. A camouflage-colored slipper and a black ASRV-brand hat also were found nearby.

The black hat would prove critical to the investigation.

Video of the shooting obtained by police from a nearby house showed the shooter wore a similar hat that dropped on the ground when he fell while running away, the complaint said.

A crime lab analyzed the hat and found DNA on it that matched a sample from Artemus, according to the complaint. It was not clear how police obtained the DNA sample from Artemus.

Authorities said only 1 in 65.7 sextillion people would match the DNA sample as strongly as Artemus, the complaint said. A sextillion is a number followed by 21 zeroes.

Police said the hat could be purchased only online. Investigators said they found a photo of Artemus on a Facebook page that showed the teen wearing a black ASRV hat with the same logo as the one found at the crime scene.

Artemus was charged with homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide and a firearms count.

Police said video showed Dean stop his car near the intersection of Freemont and Palmgreen streets, a block away from where the shooting occurred.

Four people walked out of a Palmgreen Street home that police said was “obviously abandoned.” They got into Dean’s car.

Dean started to drive west, toward Douglass Street, but didn’t make it far, the complaint said. About 25 seconds later, the video captured the sound of two or three gunshots. It also showed the front-seat passenger, wearing an ASRV hat, firing toward Dean while getting out of the car.

Dean was shot in the face, his left forearm and the back of his neck, where the bullet lodged in his spine, the complaint said.

Police said a forensic pathologist recovered a bullet projectile from Dean’s spinal cavity during his May 3 autopsy. They also found five different pieces of a bullet inside Dean that were designed “for additional penetration and damage,” the complaint said.