Police: Peacemaker killed during mom and son's gunfight in West Mifflin

A 19-year-old West Mifflin man told police he pulled a gun out Saturday night during a fight with his mother, then during a “tussle” he shot and killed a friend who was trying to “calm the situation,” court records show.

Dante Terrell King faces a homicide charge in the death of Anthony Orosco, 21.

About 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police and medics responded to a report of a man shot at a Palmer Lane address in a mobile home park about three miles southwest of Kennywood Park. King lives at the residence with his mother and sister, a criminal complaint shows.

First responders found Orosco had been shot once in the upper chest. Medics took Orosco to UPMC McKeesport hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 11 p.m., the complaint said.

‘I’m sorry’

When West Mifflin police arrived, King came out of the home but disregarded commands to take his left hand out of his pants pocket, police wrote in the complaint.

As officials detained King, his mother, Tara Evans, screamed, “You killed him,” the complaint said.

“I’m sorry,” King replied, according to the complaint.

A few hours later, shortly after 2 a.m., detectives interviewed King at the county’s homicide unit.

King told detectives that he and a few friends had been drinking, and one of them threw up on the bathroom floor.

When Tara Evans confronted him about the mess, King said “that he felt his mother was disrespecting him after he told her he would clean it up.”

At one point, according to King, Evans pulled a mid-sized black or silver gun on him.

King then punched his mother in the face, he told detectives. King called his brother, asking for a ride to leave the home.

King then walked to his room and grabbed what he told detectives was “his sister’s firearm that had been placed in his room earlier.”

Man killed while trying ‘to calm the situation’

As King left the room and entered the hallway, Orosco “tried to calm the situation,” the complaint said. Orosco asked King to give him the gun “to de-escalate the situation, but King refused.”

King told police that “he was not going to give anyone the firearm because he felt they were being aggressive.”

Orosco reached for the gun and tried to take it from King, the complaint said. The two men “tussled with the gun out in the hallway” and into King’s younger sister’s bedroom.

“They continued to tussle for the gun, and at some point, King’s finger was on the trigger while Anthony had a grip on the barrel,” King told detectives.

King said that “the gun went off and he shot Anthony.”

King said he immediately dropped the gun in shock. He said he did not call 911 “but he did try and apply pressure to the wound.”

King said he did not leave before police arrived because “he needed to own up to what he did.”

King is being held in Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh. He is set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 19.

Allegheny County Police are leading the investigation.

Officials asked anyone with information about the incident to call the county’s police tipline at 1-833-255-8477 (1-833-ALL-TIPS). Callers can remain anonymous.