Grief remains as police continue investigating deadly Pittsburgh Airbnb shooting

As mourners began saying goodbye to two teenage boys shot and killed at a weekend party, Pittsburgh police continued working through what Chief Scott Schubert called “a complex investigation” that needs more people to come forward with what they know.

A funeral for 17-year-old Jaiden Brown was held Friday. The day prior, hundreds turned out for visitation for the teen.

Jaiden and 17-year-old Mathew Steffy-Ross were killed in the gunfire that erupted during a party of around 200 people at the rental unit on the corner of Suismon Street and Madison Avenue.

A private service for Steffy-Ross will be held Saturday.

The shooting and its aftermath has reached far beyond Woodland Hills, where Brown was a student, and Phase 4 in East Liberty, which Steffy-Ross attended.

“These kids need somebody to help them through what they witnessed,” said Richard Garland, a University of Pittsburgh professor and director of the Violence Prevention Project.

Garland said he visited with students from Penn Hills High School and Westinghouse High School this week.

“The kids are feeling it,” he said, noting that he’s referred several families to local mental health centers. He said that in talking to students who were at the party but not hurt, it felt the same as when he visits trauma centers to talk with gunshot victims.

“It’s like a rude awakening to some of them,” Garland said. “This could be an epiphany.”

He said the girls he’s talked to have been more open about what they saw and what happened.

The boys, though, “they’re like, ‘I’m never going to anything like that again.’ They’re saying they should have just turned around and left. There were so many people in the house they couldn’t turn around and leave.”

The house was so tightly packed, Garland said they told him, that kids were being trampled.

“It was like a stampede.”

Schubert said this week that some partygoers jumped from windows trying to escape the gunfire. Five were injured trying to get away.

“A majority of that large crowd appeared to be under 21,” Schubert said. “Many of them were there just to have a good time. Unfortunately with guns being involved, we saw the tragic results of that party and what it’s done to our city.”

He declined on Friday to say whether investigators have any suspects, nor would he say how many shooters they believe are involved. Schubert previously said that casings – which include evidence that an AR-15-style rifle was used – indicate that several guns and thus several shooters were involved.

“It’s a complex investigation. There’s a lot to look through,” Schubert said Friday. “I know people will say, ‘Oh, there’s all kinds of stuff on social media,’ which is great … but we’ve got to piece it together. We have a lot of protocols we have to go through to bring a case against somebody.”

The shooting happened just after 12:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday.

A Pittsburgh police officer responded to the rental unit about 11 p.m. for a noise complaint. Authorities have said the officer asked to speak to a resident, and a man came downstairs to meet the officer at the door. The man who came to the door turned the music down and was warned to keep it down. Schubert said earlier this week that officers responding to noise complaints often don’t ask for identification or proof of residency or homeownership.

Schubert said the officer saw nothing unusual that would indicate trouble was brewing.

A little more than 90 minutes later, police received ShotSpotter notifications for dozens of rounds in the area, and an officer chimed in on the radio that there was a large party happening there that he’d checked earlier, presumably during the noise complaint.

Authorities have said at least 50 shots were fired inside the home, and just as many were shot outside. Police described a complex scene that stretched for blocks, and they found injured partygoers in multiple locations around the area.