Pair of shootings sets Fineview neighbors on edge

When the bullets sprayed across the sidewalk Saturday afternoon, adults and kids alike ran for cover.

They sprinted into the the apartments of the Allegheny Dwellings public housing complex as the poppop-pop of gunfire exploded about 2:30 p.m. One little boy was stepped on in the rush. Three people were injured as they fled.

Two people were shot — a man in the hip and a woman in the hand.

The second broad-daylight shooting in the 1700 block of Belleau Drive in nine days, the attack set the neighborhood on edge. On Monday, residents kept their kids close and their eyes open as they sat in the sunshine or talked with neighbors. Children rode tricycles up and down the same stretch of sidewalk where Saturday’s shooting occurred — but everyone was ready to run at a moment’s notice, one woman said.

“These kids don’t even know what the hell they’re running from, they just run when we run,” she said, shaking her head. She asked not to be identified out of fear for her safety. “This last [shooting] was the worst one, and if that was the worst one, then what about the next one?”

Another woman who has lived in the complex for two years said she no longer allows her children to walk two buildings down to the complex’s playground.

“It’s getting worse,” she said. “You never know when it’s going to happen.”

The 1700 block of Belleau Drive has long seen violence. It flared up in July 2016, when a 28-year-old man was found shot to death on the street. And in 2014, when one man was shot in the face and another in the leg during a drive-by shooting.

It’s frustrating to watch, said Mike Flaherty, president of the Fineview Citizens Council.

“It’s unbelievable that people keep getting shot in the 1700 block of Belleau, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “That’s where all the shootings happen. Like, do we not have enough police? What is going on? Whose responsibility is it?”

It’s too soon to say whether Saturday’s shooting is connected to another in the 1700 block of Belleau on June 9, police spokeswoman Sonya Toler said Monday.

She said the two shootings were not random, but she would not give any details about the motive for the attacks or the intended targets. She also would not say whether the shootings were gang-related.

In the June 9 incident, a single shooter came out of a wooded area and fired 14 rounds into a group of people about 10:30 a.m. One man was wounded.

After police arrived and put up crime scene tape, a woman sat on her porch next door and lamented the violence.

She didn’t give her name, worried about safety.

Ten days later, on Monday, she stood in the same area with her arm in a sling — she’d been shot in the hand during Saturday’s attack.