Death of woman shot in head by Pittsburgh police during chase 12 years ago ruled a homicide

A woman who was shot by Pittsburgh police at the end of a car chase more than a dozen years ago died this week, and her death has been ruled a homicide.

Lena Davenport, 61, was taken to the emergency room at UPMC Mercy hospital after being found unresponsive at her McKees Rocks home on Thursday, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

She died from complications of a gunshot wound to the head that she suffered in that 2013 incident, the medical examiner said.

A Pittsburgh police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

An Allegheny County spokeswoman said she had requested more details from the medical examiner but had not received a response.

On Jan. 13, 2013, Davenport, then 49, had been a passenger in a car driven by her son, Donald Burris Jr., then 32.

A bullet fired by a Pittsburgh police officer, one of five working off-duty security details, hit Davenport in her right eye, causing brain damage.

Police had said Burris fled when a Homestead police officer tried to pull him over for running a red light. They were not armed.

They led police about five miles to East Carson Street just as bars were letting out at 1:45 a.m. Police said Burris smashed into parked cars on the crowded street and stopped near 13th Street as the off-duty officers fired multiple shots into his car.

In addition to Davenport being shot, another bullet grazed a pedestrian, and one officer was found to have fired at the wrong car, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said several days after the incident.

Police said their car had been a threat to pedestrians and officers.

Davenport underwent multiple surgeries that included removing part of her skull. A few months after the incident, she was suffering from severe headaches and had general cognitive problems, her lawyer said at the time.

She was able to take care of herself with help from her family.

An Allegheny County jury acquitted Burris of more than two dozen charges in October 2014. He was convicted on two counts of fleeing from police.

Two weeks after the shooting, then-city police Chief Nate Harper issued an order prohibiting officers from firing into a moving vehicle unless there are shots being fired from that vehicle.