Beltzhoover neighborhood mourns death of 3-year-old shot while in bed

Dozens of family and friends Tuesday mourned the death of 3-year-old Chassity Clancy during a candlelit vigil in Pittsburgh’s Beltzhoover neighborhood.

Clancy was killed when she was shot in the neck while in bed early Sunday morning.

Marlin Pritchard, 51, of Beltzhoover faces homicide, child endangerment and gun charges in connection with the shooting.

Pritchard told police he had been sleeping with a shotgun under his pillow with the barrel pointed toward two children sleeping in the same bed as him, according to a criminal complaint filed against him.

He was awoken by the blast of the gun going off, he told police.

“What do you want, man? This is my fault,” Pritchard told detectives who interviewed him after the shooting, according to the complaint.

Pritchard, a construction worker, told police he’d been threatened Saturday by people he was doing work for, and he’d also had a longstanding issue with another man that prompted him to sleep with the shotgun for protection, according to the complaint.