Pittsburgh police detective shot in gunfight that left Mt. Oliver parolee dead is 'doing fine'

The Pittsburgh police detective who was shot last week in a gunfight that left a Mt. Oliver man dead is recovering at home, Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said.

“He is doing well,” Hissrich said.

Allegheny County police are investigating what happened Thursday night when the detective, who was shot in the leg, and three other city detectives pulled over a car on East Ohio Street.

The plainclothes detectives were in an unmarked SUV when they pulled over a 2002 Lexus for reasons that have yet to be explained.

A scuffle ensued with a passenger in the car, Elijah Jamaal Brewer, 25, and Brewer and all four detectives fired guns, police said.

Authorities are working to figure out who fired first, who shot Brewer and who shot the detective who was hit in the leg. They didn’t know answers to those questions Friday, when Allegheny County Police Superintendent Coleman McDonough said Brewer, a parolee who wasn’t allowed to own a gun, was a passenger in a car that was pulled over and he fired two shots from a 9mm handgun at police.

The gun was recovered from Brewer’s right hand before he was taken to a hospital where he died, police said.

Police are awaiting a medical examiner’s report to determine how many times Brewer was shot.

County police investigate officer-involved shootings for the city. They will forward the investigation results to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office, which decides whether the shooting was justified.

The detectives are on administrative leave until the investigation is finished, as is governed by Pittsburgh police policies. They have not been identified, as is also departmental policy, a police spokesman said.