More details emerge in Pittsburgh party shooting

Police were there just 90 minutes before the shooting started.

At the party on Pittsburgh’s North Side where more than 200 people were gathered in an Airbnb rental, it was crowded and loud, witnesses said.

People waited in line to get into the party, which was being held in one of the units of the three-­story building on Suismon Street. By 11 p.m., vehicles crowded the parking lot across the street, neighbor Mitchel Wilston said.

Guests staying in Stephen Long Sr.’s unit in the building messaged him to say the party was unbelievably loud. They said they were calling the police and, ultimately, they left.

“I’m just glad they got out of there when they decided to get out of there,” he said.

Long’s unit sustained damage, he said: Doors were kicked in, and several windows had bullet holes in them.

Officers arrived in response to the noise complaint about 11 p.m.

According to police spokeswoman Cara Cruz, officers asked the man who answered the door to get the homeowner. A man who identified himself as the homeowner met police at the door, but the party, held on the second floor, was out of view of police, Cruz said.

Officers asked the man to turn down the music, Cruz said, and he complied. She said officers told the man that if they were called to the address again, they would shut down the party. She said there were no more noise complaints after that.

Wilston said he saw the police arrive in the area but noted they made no moves to shut down the party.

“There were like a million people” at the party, a female neighbor told the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because police had told her not to discuss her surveillance footage with anyone else.

The neighbor told the newspaper that underage people poured into the party all night and several neighbors called police about loud music about 9 p.m. Saturday.

The Post also obtained surveillance footage from Wilston’s home. It appears to show police arriving at the scene, walking up to the home, and then leaving less than two minutes later.

The shooting started about an hour and a half later.

Police dispatched

Shortly after police were dispatched to the shooting scene, an officer noted on the air, “Be advised, there is a very large party at that 900 Madison Avenue that we checked earlier.”

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.

Two of the partygoers — Jaiden Brown and Mathew Steffy-Ross — died in the gunfire. Both were 17.

Eight others were wounded by gunfire, and five people suffered broken bones and other injuries while jumping from windows to escape the violence.

Steffy-Ross was a student at Phase 4 Learning Center in East Liberty and Brown attended Woodland Hills High School.

“His future was cut short,” said Terrie Reed, founder of Phase 4 Learning Center. She said that while she did not know Steffy-Ross personally — he’d just transferred to the East Liberty location recently — her staff has shared stories of the teen.

Reed said the boy’s family members are “just trying to wrap their heads around what happened.”

“They’re devastated,” she said.

Woodland Hills Superintendent Daniel Castagna, in a letter to students and families, said all staff members “feel the pain of this unimaginable grief.”

“To our staff, let’s be vigilant and present this week,” he wrote. “Violence impacts students at all levels and in every building, so tomorrow, more than ever, they need us.”

Regulating the rental market

After the Easter morning shooting, Pittsburgh City Council members moved to try to rein in short-term rental properties like the one in East Allegheny.

The legislation, which will be introduced Tuesday, would require anyone operating an Airbnb or similar short-term rental unit to get a license from the city’s Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections. They will need to provide contact information where officials can get in touch with them if issues arise at the rental property, along with other information like the maximum number of guests permitted for each short-term rental.

Licenses would have to be renewed annually.

Property owners also would need to keep a log of guests who enter the property — including their names, addresses and phone numbers — which they would have to provide to city code enforcement officers, if they requested it.

“Currently, short-term rental properties aren’t regulated,” said Councilman Bobby Wilson, who represents the area where the shooting took place. “This provides us an avenue for us to require a license to operate one.”

Wilson is sponsoring the legislation with Councilwomen Theresa Kail-Smith and Deb Gross.

It remained unclear Monday who rented the Airbnb where the shooting happened. Ben Breit, a spokesman for the company, said renters must be an adult. The person who booked the rental has been banned from using the rental company for life. In addition, he said, the company will pursue legal action.

“Airbnb strictly bans parties, and we condemn the behavior that is alleged to have prompted this criminal gun violence and the tragic loss of life,” Breit said. “Yesterday we confirmed the booking guest has been issued a lifetime ban from Airbnb, and today we can confirm that we plan to pursue affirmative legal action against this individual.”

‘Large, large crowd’

Audio recordings of emergency services radio calls during the response to the shooting illustrate in real-­time the chaotic scene that police and party-goers experienced as the gunfire continued.

“Large crowd … We need more units out there. Large, large crowd,” one officer shouts.

“Take as many as you need,” comes the response.

Soon, a dispatcher notes that they “have officers from every zone going right now.”

As minutes tick by, the radio calls indicate how officers continued to discover multiple shooting victims at multiple scenes throughout the area: Four victims found near a medical building. Another found in the 800 block of Concord.

“We have a gunshot victim in the back of the patrol car, going to AGH,” an officer says at one point. Later, he says he’s dropped off the victim at the hospital and is heading back to the scene.

At one point relatively early in the incident, a first responder says he is on Peralta Street and “had someone run up and tell me to tell the police that the shooter is in the bathroom,” he said. “I’m not sure at what address they’re talking about.”

Warning: This audio contains real-time police radio calls that some might find disturbing.