Father searching for answers after son shot and killed in Homestead

The father of a man killed last week in Allegheny County is searching for answers and justice in his son’s death.

Jason Sterling Chavis said he was at his Johnstown home Friday morning when police knocked on his door to tell him that his son, 25-year-old Jason Nicholas Chavis, had been killed.

“All I really remember is the ‘un’ in ‘unfortunately,’ and I remember I kind of collapsed,” he told WJAC-TV, where he is a general sales manager. “I couldn’t think at the time. I couldn’t speak. I was a mess.”

His son was shot and killed late Thursday and pronounced dead just after midnight. A teenage girl who was with him, Amari Mitchell, also was shot and killed. A juvenile boy was injured, but police have said he is expected to survive.

Chavis described his son as a stoic man who was always out to prove himself.

“He was always the person who wanted to go off on his own, prove he could do something and then bring it back to you and say, ‘Hey, I’m proud,’” he said, noting that when he smiled, “it was like, ‘OK, the world is right.’”

A former McKeesport High School and University of Pittsburgh football player, Chavis said he is leaning on some of his former teammates for support.

“There is something different in their hug than with most people because, one, they can hold my weight, and two, there’s a pushback,” he said. “There’s a firmness in it that says, ‘OK, I’m going to give you time to grieve, but you know you have to stand up after this.’”

In a GoFundMe seeking donations to put toward a reward, Chavis wrote that he hopes to offer a $15,000 reward and use $5,000 to post billboards in Homestead.

“He was the ball that I wasn’t supposed to drop,” Chavis told the TV station. “So as a father, you immediately feel like you failed. You feel like you failed because you didn’t keep your kid safe.”