Police: 6 people shot outside Brighton Heights church
Update: Police later corrected information to reveal that five people were shot, and one person was injured while trying to escape the melee.
The Rev. Nicita Moses was speaking from the pulpit in her church during a funeral service in Brighton Heights on Friday afternoon when shots started to ring out.
“It was chaotic,” said Moses, standing near a car with the driver’s side window blown out from gunfire. “We heard these shots, and everyone started running.”
Panic ensued inside Destiny of Faith Church, cutting the funeral short. Someone jumped over the casket while running for cover.
“Why would someone come to a funeral and try to kill even more people?” Moses asked. “It’s upsetting.”
Six people were shot outside the church in the 3700 block of Brighton Road just after noon in what could have been in retaliation for the Oct. 15 killing of a 20-year-old man, who was shot to death in Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Police reported late Friday night that two people have been detained in connection with the shooting. Tribune-Review news partner WPXI reported the men were pulled over in a Hyundai Elantra after tossing a weapon from the car on the McKees Rocks Bridge.
Five of the victims were taken to Allegheny General Hospital and reported in stable condition by mid-afternoon, police said. The sixth victim was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Police declined to name or provide ages for the victims.
The funeral service was held in memory of John Hornezes Jr., a North Side resident who was killed during a triple shooting this month near what police have called an open-air drug market at Allegheny Commons.
Two women, both described by police as innocent bystanders, were killed in that shooting.
Police have said Hornezes was involved in the Oct. 15 shooting, which occurred when a Sunoco gas station parking lot argument erupted into gunfire near a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus shelter.
On Friday, at least 20 rounds were fired near the church by multiple shooters, said police Cmdr. Richard Ford of major crimes. Ford told reporters he believes some of the shooting victims had attended the funeral. He said police had very good video of the incident.
There is an ongoing dispute in the city’s North Side, and police said they plan to increase their presence in areas of concern.
Ford declined to connect the dispute to the funeral service shooting.
“We’re looking into what we think the motive was,” he said.
A continuation of shootings
Three people were wounded in a North Side shooting late Thursday on the 100 block of Rhine Place in Spring Hill. Pittsburgh police said 34 rounds were fired.
Hours earlier, a man was shot in the leg on the 2000 block of Maple Avenue in Perry South.
Mayor Ed Gainey visited the shooting scene, which was buttressed by a heavy presence from Pittsburgh police, Allegheny County Police and the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, around 3 p.m. Friday. Gainey lamented the violence that unfolded Friday and pleaded with the public to share information with police about the gunmen.
“I know a lot of people are hurting, but to go out there and retaliate doesn’t make anything better,” Gainey told reporters assembled on Brighton Road. “We can only get through this together. Please don’t retaliate, communicate. Don’t go out there and take it upon yourself, because you never get justice that way.”
The Rev. Brenda Gregg was sitting in the church, about five minutes away from taking the pulpit to speak, when the gunfire broke out.
“This has been one of the most devastating days of my life,” Gregg told reporters. “I ask that you pray for our congregants. We are not going to close our doors. … You are our neighbors.”
Later, outside the church, Gregg told the Tribune-Review that she asked Pittsburgh police beforehand to send officers to attend the funeral service. It was unclear Friday if officers were present at the time of the shooting.
“That is just part of the protocol,” Gregg said. “We have followed that protocol.”
Ken Schutter was inside his apartment along Brighton Road, which sits directly next to the church, when the gunfire erupted.
“I thought it was fireworks,” Schutter told the Tribune-Review. “Then I looked out my window and saw people running through my backyard — that’s when I realized it was gunshots.”
A Rite-Aid pharmacy across the street from the church shuttered its doors at the time of the shooting.
“A crime scene’s a crime scene,” an employee told a man waiting outside for the shop to open.
“Nothing is sacred that you would come and shoot it up. It’s senseless you’d come around a church and shoot it up.”
A woman coming out of the Brighton Heights church where a shooting just happened outside has a message for the community. @WPXI pic.twitter.com/YZwA3GaAOn
— Nicole Ford (@NicoleFordTV) October 28, 2022
The shootings occurred a day after city officials expressed concerns over Pittsburgh’s rising homicide rate.
Pittsburgh police said Thursday that its officers had investigated 59 homicides to date in 2022 — the highest rate in at least seven years and a 25% spike year over year.
WPXI-TV has posted a video of a livestream of the service as gunfire erupted outside. WARNING: The video may be disturbing to some viewers.
ALERT: Multiple shots fired in the area of 3700 block of Brighton Road. There are an unknown number of victims at this time. This is a very active scene. Please avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/DPBLgKmdHO
— Pittsburgh Public Safety (@PghPublicSafety) October 28, 2022
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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