A jury next week will begin deliberating the fate of a man accused in the 2021 shooting death of a North Hills honors student outside his family’s Strip District restaurant.

Closing arguments took place Friday after a weeklong retrial of Howard Hawkins, who is accused of killing Ahmir Tuli, 18, on Feb. 21, 2021, outside of Preeti’s Pitt in the 2700 block of Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh. He is charged with criminal homicide.

Police said Hawkins, 50, of Pittsburgh, shot Tuli once in the head. Tuli, a line cook, was on break when police said Hawkins approached him and fired the fatal shot.

Hawkins had been inside the bar and restaurant that evening when he got into a dispute with another customer, according to Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Sarah Weikart.

Hawkins was escorted out of the bar at 8:56 p.m., according to security camera footage from Preeti’s, Weikart said. Hawkins walked to the car he’d arrived in, opened the passenger door, grabbed an object and put it in his pocket.

“A minute later, instead of getting in that car and leaving, you see him pacing on the sidewalk,” Weikart said.

Tuli exited the restaurant at 9:09 and went to his own car, sitting with the door open, she continued.

Video from city cameras, Weikart said, then showed Hawkins approach the teen. The two argued, and Hawkins shot Tuli in the head, she said.

Hawkins was arrested in July 2021 in North Hollywood, Calif.

His first trial ended abruptly last year when a witness inappropriately referenced the defendant’s criminal record during testimony.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Beth A. Lazzara granted a mistrial in the case.

His second trial began on Monday before a new jury.

Before closing statements Friday, Hawkins told the judge he would not testify.

Defense attorney Casey White told jurors the prosecution failed to prove Hawkins’ guilt “beyond reasonable doubt,” arguing common sense showed his client’s innocence.

He noted witnesses described the shooter as bald with a mustache, not with gray dreadlocks and a beard like Hawkins, and said footage shows no sign of Hawkins’ Polo hat.

“Where is he?” White said of the man fitting the description.

It was “certainly not fair” for investigative energy to be focused on Hawkins, White said.

“They could’ve done that for anyone,” he said. “There was a grocery list of witnesses they could’ve talked to and looked at.”

White also noted that Tuli was carrying $2,000 on him when he was killed.

“There’s no evidence to suggest that Howard Hawkins had any beef (with Tuli),” White said.

Weikart said in her closing statement that White was attempting to shift the jury’s focus.

“If you can’t shift the facts, you shift the focus,” she said.

For example, a Polo hat could’ve “easily” been flipped inside out, Weikart said.

“It’s because he has a receding hairline,” she said of White’s reference to the suspect being a bald man. “It’s not insurmountable to believe he has a bald head.”

Even with potential discrepancies in the suspect’s description, Weikart said Hawkins was identified in the lineup by a witness who wrote “100%” that it was him.

She leaned on evidence of a phone connecting and reconnecting to the car’s Bluetooth at the scene, along with timestamps, in her closing.

“Who runs? Who hides? People who have done something wrong,” Weikart said.

Prosecutor Weikart said Hawkins fled to California and got a new ID after Tuli’s death. She urged jurors to convict him of first-degree murder.

“He doesn’t want to face what he did,” she said. “This was malicious; this was premeditated; this was calculated.”

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