Pitcairn shooting victims lauded for roles on Clairton High School football team

Neither Isiah McCarthy or Tyrant Sutton ever led a football huddle as a high school team’s star quarterback or scored a game-winning touchdown to clinch a playoff berth.

But the two teens killed in a shooting in Pitcairn were remembered Friday for how they wore the Clairton Bears’ jersey with pride.

McCarthy, 16, who recently moved to Pitcairn, appeared on the city’s high-school football squad roster as a freshman in the 2024-25 school year, said Alexis Trubiani, the Clairton school district’s athletic director.

At 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds, McCarthy, who wore No. 13, appeared promising on both offense and defense, switching between roles as a running back and linebacker, Trubiani said.

Like McCarthy, Sutton, also 16, of Clairton, toyed with both offense and defense, Trubiani said. Sutton played as a Bear as a freshman but spent half of the 2024-25 season, his sophomore school year, living in McKeesport.

When Sutton played in Clairton, standing 5-foot-11 and weighing 135 pounds, he flexed his skills as a wide receiver and defensive end. He wore No. 14.

“But, really, I don’t think this is about football — it’s about the community,” said Trubiani, who grew up in Clairton and now lives in Donora. “This is happening far too much in the community. And I don’t think you ever get used to that.”

The teens’ deaths come just a month after Brendon Parsons, the quarterback who helped lead the Clairton Bears to a WPIAL championship title in 2019, was fatally shot at a picnic in Clairton on May 25.

Parsons, who graduated from Clairton High School in 2020, was 23 years old.

In 2019, gun violence also killed former Clairton football star Armani Ford, quarterback during the Bears’ record-breaking, 63-game winning streak.

Ford, then also 23, was shot in the backyard of a home on Clairton’s Vankirk Street, police said.

These victims “first and foremost, were somebody’s children, they were somebody’s brothers, they were somebody’s sons,” Trubiani said.

“This gun violence has just got to stop,” she added. “This one, it’s going to be tough. It’s going to hurt everywhere.”

McCarthy’s and Sutton’s families did not return phone calls Friday seeking comment.

Sutton’s brother, Ty’yaire, mourned Friday on social media.

“I never thought at this age I would have to wake up n my brother is gone,” he posted to Facebook, next to an emoji of a broken heart. “My heart is gone.”

Both teens died at AHN Forbes Hospital in Monroeville Thursday afternoon after being shot around 3 p.m. on Shaw Alley, a tiny Pitcairn road composed of aging bricks.

“Although this tragic incident occurred outside our immediate community, the loss of one of our students and a former student to gun violence deeply impacts us all,” the Clairton school district said Friday in a prepared statement.

“Our number one priority is the safety of our students, staff and community,” the district added. “And we join with the community and mourn the loss of these two young men.”

Clairton schools plan to support the teens’ classmates, regardless of the fact that school is out for the summer, the district said. Anyone who needs help or resources should come to Clairton High School from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday.

The scene of the shooting appeared quiet Friday morning; there was no yellow police tape or buzzing TV crews. Foot traffic was light inside Wall Avenue Express, a convenience store just feet from the crime scene.

Residents on Pitcairn’s Wood and Agatha streets — two roads connected by a five-point intersection and book-ended by a school and a church — declined to speak with a TribLive reporter.

One resident told police Thursday that they heard about eight gunshots and saw a car with several people inside that appeared to be involved in the incident, TribLive news partner WTAE reported.

No arrests have been announced.

Allegheny County Police are discussing criminal charges with the district attorney’s office — but it’s too early to say charges are pending, police spokesman Jim Madalinsky told TribLive Friday.

“Everyone involved is accounted for,” Madalinsky said.

He declined to elaborate and forwarded questions to the DA’s office, which declined comment.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 833-ALL-TIPS . Anonymous calls will be accepted.