Plum man accused of killing landscaper in Penn Hills

A 23-year-old man from Plum is charged with homicide in the June shooting death of a man working with a landscape crew in Penn Hills.

Allegheny County Police say Tracy Carpenter, of Sardis Road, was arrested without incident Wednesday afternoon at a residence in Plum.

That was a day after a warrant had been issued for his arrest in the June 1 killing of Robert Higginbotham, 24, of Wilkinsburg on June 1.

Allegheny County Police say Carpenter fired 10 shots through the driver’s side window of a parked dump truck where Higginbotham had been sitting on the passenger side with another man on Mt. Carmel Road at Faybern Drive.

Higginbotham, who was found on the ground, was dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds, police said. His co-worker, who was sitting to the right of Higginbotham, between him and the passenger door, jumped out and was not hurt.

In a lengthy affidavit detailing their investigation, county police did not give a motive.

In the criminal complaint, police detailed their use of video footage from security cameras, license plate readers and cameras, and a camera on a wheelchair van passing through the shooting scene, in identifying Carpenter and his vehicle and tracking his movements.

Police also tracked Carpenter using his cell phone.

A homeowner’s outdoor security cameras captured the shooting and the shooter fleeing the scene on foot. It also showed the wheelchair van pass by just after the shots were fired.

The van’s footage also showed a man running from the shooting scene and a red car with black rims parked nearby on Pershing Street. The van driver told detectives that, after going past the red car, she looked back and saw the man get in its driver side.

County police said a Wilkinsburg detective recognized the vehicle, a 2016 red Ford Focus, as belonging to Carpenter, who he had stopped several times in the past in the vehicle.

County detectives found the car parked at Carpenter’s address in Plum on June 8, where they kept watch on it. They followed Carpenter when he left that night. They said, at one point, he was traveling at 58 mph in a 35 mph zone.

Detectives stopped Carpenter on Leechburg Road near Elicker Road. According to the complaint, a detective saw Carpenter holding a black semi-automatic handgun in his lap. He tried to hide it under a sweatshirt on the passenger seat, but a detective said he could see its extended magazine.

Police said they ordered Carpenter to get out, but he stayed seated in the car. Officers removed him from the car and handcuffed him.

The firearm was identified as a 9mm “ghost gun” with no identifiable serial number. There were multiple rounds in the magazine and a live round in the chamber, the complaint states.

Detectives said Carpenter’s car matched the one seen in the area of the homicide.

In the complaint, county detectives said they also spoke with one of Carpenter’s friends, who was recently released from jail and living at a halfway house in Pittsburgh. They said a Pittsburgh detective was told the friend was one of those responsible for Higginbotham’s murder, but no charges were filed so far against that man in connection with the case.

Police said Carpenter is not legally allowed to carry a firearm because he pleaded guilty to a felony burglary in North Carolina in 2014.

Carpenter had different attorneys in two other cases, one stemming from the June 8 traffic stop in Plum. Neither could be reached for comment or to determine if they were representing him in the homicide case.

Carpenter was awaiting arraignment Friday on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, prohibited possession of a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license and recklessly endangering another person.