Man pleads guilty to 2020 shooting death in Pittsburgh's Knoxville neighborhood

A man from Pittsburgh’s Knoxville neighborhood pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter in the 2020 shooting death of another man.

Daejon Brentley, 21, will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani on Jan. 19. He also pleaded guilty to a firearms count.

A criminal complaint filed in the case said Brentley shot and killed Garrett King at around 6:30 p.m. on May 11, 2020. The had been involved in an underlying, ongoing dispute, the complaint said.

King was found with multiple gunshot wounds in a Uni-Mart parking lot. He later died at UPMC Mercy.

The shooting, captured on the video surveillance system of a Port Authority of Allegheny County bus driving past, showed a gold sedan stop in the middle of McKinley Street. The occupants got out and approached a black SUV and fired into the driver’s compartment.

The people got back inside the gold car and fled, while King got out of the SUV and collapsed on the sidewalk of the convenience store.

Using license plate reading cameras in the area, detective were able to obtain the information from the gold sedan and find its owner, the complaint said.

The next day, a search of the gold sedan revealed two spent 9mm casings that matched four found at the crime scene.

Police said officers were able to identify Brentley from video from the scene.

The prosecution said Brentley’s family had been having trouble with King, who they said kept showing up at their home threatening them.

The day of the shooting, Brentley’s mother said she received a text message with a picture showing King standing in front of their home with his hand in his pocket. She believed it was a threatening gesture and called her husband at work to alert him.

When her husband got home, the prosecution said, the family went to Uni-Mart to get money out as they were planning to move out of their house over safety concerns.

While at the convenience store, the family learned that King was at their house again.

They got in their car and started to drive away, when King’s vehicle pulled up from the opposite direction and stopped next to them.

Brentley’s stepfather exited his vehicle to talk to King, the prosecution said, when they saw King reach toward something inside of his car. That’s when Brentley fired.