2 charged in homicides on Parkway East, Route 28 last year

Over the course of one deadly night, Howard Milligan shot and killed two people in separate incidents on Route 28 and the Parkway East last May, according to police.

Milligan, 26, of Turtle Creek faces 17 charges in connection with the May 22 shootings, including two counts of homicide and attempted homicide and four counts of aggravated assault.

Leroy Irvin Jr., 35, of Churchill faces the same set of charges. In an interview with police, while he was hospitalized following a June 20 shooting, Irvin called Milligan “crazy” and “nuts” and said he had been with Milligan at the time of both shootings, according to the criminal complaint.

The pair are charged in connection with the deaths of Shane Edwards, 22, along Route 28 near Sharpsburg, and Jasmine Guest, 24, on the Parkway East a few hours later.

Edwards was driving when he was shot, and Guest was a passenger in a different vehicle when she was shot.

A witness told police they’d been with Edwards at Zone 28 in Harmar prior to the shooting, according to the criminal complaint. The witness said that when they left the Zone 28 parking lot, a white Kia pulled out behind them. Several miles away, just past the Highland Park Bridge, the witness heard several popping sounds, he told police, and realized Edwards was shot.

Edwards pulled the car to the Etna on ramp just before 2 a.m. and collapsed outside the driver-side door. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Surveillance footage from Zone 28 showed Edwards and the witness there bowling at the same time that men later identified as Milligan and Irvin were there, police said.

In his interview with investigators, Irvin said Milligan told him he shot at Edwards’ car because “they killed my sister,” according to the complaint. Police wrote that Milligan had a sister who was shot and killed, and Milligan had not been able to attend the funeral.

Hours later, around 4 a.m., Jasmine Guest was shot and killed along the Parkway East just past the Squirrel Hill Tunnel.

A witness who was driving with Guest in the passenger seat said he’d met her to get something to eat at Cambod-Ican Kitchen on East Carson Street, according to the complaint. Guest spoke to someone for a few minutes before they got food and left in the witness’s car.

The witness said he immediately noticed a white car behind them, which followed them east on the Parkway until it pulled up next to the passenger side and began firing, according to the complaint.

Cameras from the area showed Guest arriving outside the restaurant about 2:45 a.m., where she spoke to Milligan on the sidewalk, according to the complaint. Police said it appeared Milligan tried to touch Guest’s hair and she “brushes him off.” Later, police wrote, she is seen hugging him before leaving with the witness.

Irvin told police that Milligan began following Guest and the witness, telling Milligan he was “doing too much,” according to the complaint. He said Milligan shot at the vehicle and then called Irvin an expletive for trying to get him to stop.

Milligan told police he didn’t know Guest and had never driven a white Kia, according to the complaint. He has been in jail on unrelated charges since June, records show.

Police are searching for Irvin.