Police: Pittsburgh man arrested in connection with February shooting death of North Hills honors student

A man wanted in connection with the February slaying of a North Hills honors student was apprehended Wednesday in California, according to Pittsburgh police.

Howard Hawkins, 46, of Pittsburgh was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in North Hollywood on a homicide warrant for the shooting of 18-year-old Ahmir Tuli, Pittsburgh Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said.

Authorities say Hawkins has been on the run since the Feb. 21 shooting in Pittsburgh’s Strip District.

According to court documents, Hawkins, who also goes by the name Mark McClendon, is charged with criminal homicide and firearms violations.

Tuli was shot in the head Feb. 21 outside Preeti’s Pitt, a Strip District restaurant/bar owned by Tuli’s mother, where he was working that night.

Hawkins’s girlfriend, Chayla Robinson, 40, of Brentwood was charged in June for helping Hawkins escape from the shooting scene.

Police at the time alleged that Robinson drove Hawkins from the scene of the Penn Avenue shooting to a friend’s home where he changed clothes.

According to a criminal complaint filed in June, the shooting happened just after 9 p.m. outside the restaurant. A witness working security told police he’d assisted in kicking out a man, later identified as Hawkins, who was drunk and disorderly.

The witness told police the man began to walk away but then returned to where the witness and Tuli were standing outside.

The witness said Hawkins stretched out his arm and fired one shot at Tuli’s head.

Using footage from private and city surveillance cameras, police said Robinson and Hawkins left Preeti’s Pitt and made their way toward a black SUV parked in front of the bar, according to the criminal complaint. Robinson got into the driver’s seat while Hawkins retrieved something from the passenger side and returned to the rear of the building, officials said.

Robinson pulled out of the parking space as Hawkins shot Tuli, drove west on Penn Avenue and turned onto 27th Street, which is the same direction police said Hawkins fled after the shooting.

During their investigation investigators tracked the black SUV to the North Side, where surveillance of the area showed Robinson in the same car meeting with a man later identified as Terrance Rainey, the complaint read. Robinson was pulled over by police as she left for failing to signal as she pulled away from the curb.

Rainey was detained and discovered to have an illegal gun on him, court records at the time showed. He was charged with firearms violations.

Police got a search warrant for the GPS and other digital information from Robinson’s car, which showed her taking the same route as the security cameras when she left the Strip District the night of the shooting, the complaint read. It also indicated she’d driven to Rainey’s home on Brighton Road.

Security footage from that night showed Robinson arriving at the North Side home that night, followed by Hawkins getting out of the car, going into Rainey’s apartment and reemerging in different clothes, police said.

Court documents for Hawkins have not yet been updated since they were filed in February.

Robinson, who was released on $50,000 unsecured bond, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 21.