Police have arrested a Wilkinsburg man for fatally shooting another man in the back of the neck and leaving his body in the middle of a borough intersection.
Wilkinsburg police said they were dispatched around 8:40 p.m. Jan. 13 to the 700 block of South Avenue for a call about shots fired.
Officers found John Jackson, 31, lying face down in the intersection of South Avenue and Mulberry Street, about three blocks from police headquarters. Blood had pooled around his body.
Jackson had been shot in the neck, police said. He died at the scene.
Investigators used video footage from at least four cameras to piece together the alleged sequence of events that night.
Video showed Jason “Flame” Moran, 41, stop at a Penn Avenue liquor store at 7:48 p.m., according to a criminal complaint. He and a second man, identified in court records only by the nickname “Middle,” stayed there until 8:08 p.m.
Investigators said two tattoos — one on Moran’s right hand and a “nondescript facial tattoo” below his right eye — were visible in the footage.
About a half-hour later, footage from a different camera showed Moran pull a gun from his waistband as he walked across a Methodist church parking in the 700 block of South Avenue, the complaint said.
Police say a third camera showed when Moran approached Jackson on South Avenue. Jackson fell to the ground and the suspect left the scene.
At 8:39 p.m, police said they found Jackson in front of 740 South Ave., about 250 feet from the church parking lot.
Video showed Moran and the second man walk to a nearby apartment building, where a resident, identified in court records as Witness 3, said they asked for a drink, according to police.
Moran “tried to flirt” with the resident, who then ordered him an Uber ride to a residential block in Wilkinsburg, the complaint said.
Police said two witnesses, including Witness 3, later identified Moran in a photo lineup.
Allegheny County Police charged Moran a week after the shooting with homicide and two gun counts. He was arrested Monday and was awaiting arraignment Tuesday morning.
A previous conviction bars Moran from legally owning a gun, police said.
Moran pleaded guilty in 2005 to drug possession and other charges, court records show. He was sentenced to 15 to 30 months in prison.
