Stowe carjacking arrest leads police to suspect in Pittsburgh shooting

One of the two men arrested Monday in connection with a carjacking and high-speed chase that shut down a Pittsburgh bridge was wanted for shooting someone last week.

The man police identified as the passenger in the stolen vehicle — Vaughn Hall, 34, of Pittsburgh — was charged with an attempted homicide in the Hill District on July 27, court records show.

It was unclear Tuesday if that incident was related to the carjacking, which happened in Stowe.

Charges against Hall in the carjacking are pending, Stowe police Chief Matt Preininger told TribLive.

Police meanwhile filed dozens of charges against the man they identified as the driver of the stolen vehicle: Duane Jemison, 36, of Pittsburgh.

Jemison was awaiting arraignment Tuesday afternoon.

The carjacking incident started around 4 a.m. Monday when an unidentified man armed with a pistol stole a white Hyundai sedan from two victims outside Club Imperium, an after-hours gentlemen’s club on Stowe’s Island Avenue, according to a criminal complaint.

Authorities did not identify the gunman, who, they said, also stole two phones and U.S. passports.

Police said they spotted the stolen car around 2:15 p.m. at a McDonald’s in Bellevue. The suspects were at a nearby gas station.

Once the men drove away, a Bellevue police sergeant in a marked cruiser went to pull over the stolen vehicle, the complaint said. Jemison struck the marked car in its rear passenger side and fled down Route 65, according to police.

The chase that followed raced through multiple towns and neighborhoods, sometimes at more than 90 mph, causing “several” car crashes, the complaint said.

Police said multiple vehicles — all of them occupied — suffered “minor to moderate damage,” though nobody was seriously injured.

After driving nearly seven miles, Jemison darted off outbound Route 28 and crashed near the 31st Street Bridge and River Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill neighborhood, the complaint said.

Officers said they apprehended Hall, the passenger, after he tried to run.

Jemison, carrying a backpack and clutching a gun in his right hand, fled underneath the bridge and shed a baseball cap and T-shirt, the complaint said.

Pittsburgh police, backed by Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies, used a drone to track Jemison, the complaint said. They took him into custody about an hour later. Police did not provide details.

Wanted suspect

Jemison was charged with 39 counts, 13 of them felonies, including multiple counts of robbery, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. Stowe police also filed summary charges of careless driving and reckless driving against him.

Jemison was taken to the Allegheny County Jail and arraigned shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday.

District Judge Daniel E. Butler denied Jemison bail, calling him “a danger to the community,” court records show.

Jemison’s attorney was not listed.

After police apprehended Hall on Monday afternoon following the car chase, he was taken to the jail, court records show.

Hall was arraigned around 12:40 a.m. Tuesday. A judge denied him bail.

“Defendant shot someone and is a threat and danger to the community,” District Judge Thomas Torkowsky wrote in court records.

Pittsburgh police last week filed a warrant against Hall in connection with a shooting in the city’s Hill District neighborhood.

Hall was not in police custody when he was charged July 31 — four days after the shooting — with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, robbery and other counts, court records show.

Police say Hall shot a man once in the head around 11:30 p.m. on July 27 at a Chauncey Drive parking lot inside the Bedford Dwellings public housing development, according to a criminal complaint in that case.

Police did not name the victim, who they said remains unconscious and in critical condition at UPMC Mercy hospital.

Surveillance footage from Pittsburgh housing authority and city cameras showed Hall “chest-bump” the victim and briefly fighting with him.

The victim went to bend over at the waist and, when he stood up, Hall shot him, the complaint said. The man fell to the ground and did not move.

Another man, who had arrived at the parking lot with Hall, tried to detain Hall but was unsuccessful, police said.

Hall then rifled through the victim’s pants and took “a chain,” or jewelry, from him, an unnamed witness later told police, according to the complaint.

The witness told police Hall knew the victim “for a long time”

Police said the witness identified Hall from a photo array.

Hall’s attorney was not listed in court records Tuesday.