Neighbor charged in fatal Brighton Heights shooting

A SWAT situation on Wednesday ended with the arrest of a man accused earlier in the week of opening fire on a couple as they walked to get a bite to eat on Pittsburgh’s North Side, authorities said.

The shooting happened about 3:30 p.m. Monday near the intersection of Brighton Road and Davis Avenue in the city’s Brighton Heights neighborhood. Ernest Nevin Mills Jr. was walking with his significant other when police say 24-year-old Laron Smith approached them and began shooting.

Mills, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. His unidentified significant other was uninjured. According to the criminal complaint, Smith and Mills lived on separate floors of the same multi-family home on Simen Street.

Multiple witnesses saw the shooting unfold, according to the complaint, including a crossing guard who was working in the area.

The crossing guard heard a loud pop and saw a man in a ski mask run after the couple, according to the complaint. Once the man, alleged to be Smith, got close enough, he fired twice at Mills, the witness told police. Mills fell to the street, and the crossing guard radioed for help.

Another witness saw the couple leave the Simen Street home shortly before the shooting, according to the complaint. That witness said they saw the second-floor resident of the same home – later identified as Smith – leaning against the house as the couple left.

The witness said Smith followed the couple, who didn’t notice him because they were laughing and talking to each other, according to the complaint. They said they recognized Smith because he is often “acting weird and doing strange things,” such as “lighting a magazine on fire in the neighbor’s yard, throwing sneakers onto active power lines and screaming profanities loudly … although he is outside by himself.”

The survivor of the shooting, Mills’s partner, said they, too, recognized Smith because of his strange actions, according to the complaint. Smith would sit outside and sometimes roll in the grass, sing songs or scream profanities, police wrote.

The survivor detailed how the couple had heard the first gunshot and then ducked behind a car before cautiously continuing on, police wrote. As they did, the man later identified as Smith ran toward them and shot Mills from behind as he tried to turn away.

Both the survivor of the shooting and one of the witnesses picked Smith out of a photo array, police said. His mother told police she heard the gunshots, and her son had left the house shortly before she heard them.

Smith was taken into custody Wednesday morning on Breker Street in the city’s Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood. He is charged with homicide, reckless endangerment and carrying a firearm without a license.