Prosecution links shoeless running man to Hill District homicide with found footwear

A 23-year-old man was ordered Friday to stand trial in the August slaying of a 20-yearold man in the Hill District.

Tevin Patterson is accused of shooting and killing Calvin Turner inside a home in the Oak Hill Apartments in the 2300 block of Oak Hill Drive on Aug. 8.

A security guard for the apartment complex said he saw Mr. Patterson running away from the area of the crime wearing a bright yellow hooded sweatshirt and missing one shoe.

The guard, David Thoma, testified during a preliminary hearing in City Court, Downtown, that he heard gunshots and drove toward the sound, then spotted the man in a yellow sweatshirt running away.

“The moment he saw my patrol car he threw his hoodie over his head and began to run,” Mr. Thoma said.

Mr. Thoma pulled around to cut the man off on a cross street and said he found the man, who he identified as Mr. Patterson, walking.

Mr. Thoma, still in his car, pulled alongside Mr. Patterson and asked him what was going on, but the man could not give a

coherent answer, Mr. Thoma said. He was limping, bleeding from a small cut on his lip, and kept his right hand in his hoodie pocket, Mr. Thoma testified.

“He was frantic; his words were jumbled up,” Mr. Thoma said.

He stopped his patrol car and got out to talk to Mr. Patterson, but the man took off running, Mr. Thoma said. He returned to his patrol car, called 911 to report the shots fired, and described Mr. Patterson as a suspect.

Mr. Patterson was caught a short while later, wearing no shoes and without the yellow sweatshirt.

At the time, police said one man was seen running from the shooting through a wooded area toward Kirkpatrick Street. Security guards from the housing complex chased the man and caught him, and police took him into custody.

Pittsburgh police Detective Paul Becker later discovered a yellow sweatshirt and a single, orange-red Nike shoe in a forested area off Kirkpatrick Street. The shoe was the right foot, a men’s size 6, the detective testified.

The sweatshirt had blood spatter on the right arm and front, Detective Becker testified.

Detective Bobby Shaw, who responded to the scene of the homicide, found Mr. Turner on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. He was near the front door of the home on Oak Hill Drive.

He also found a single, orange-red Nike shoe, a men’s size 6, under Mr. Turner’s body. A left shoe, it matched the shoe found in the woods.

Detective Shaw testified that there was no sign of forced entry to the home but that a back window was open and the blinds were disturbed. He found a toy gun with an orange cap a few feet from Mr. Turner’s body, he testified.

An autopsy found that Mr. Turner had gunshot residue on both his hands.

Mr. Patterson’s attorney, Blaine Jones, argued that the case against his client was purely circumstantial and that he should not be held for trial.

When asked about the shoes, after the hearing, Mr. Jones called it “strange.”

“In terms of that piece of evidence, it’s very strange and it’s something we’ll have to figure out as well,” he said. “I’m glad we had the hearing today, we got a lot of information out of that hour.”

District Judge James Motznik ruled there was “more than enough” evidence to hold the charges of homicide, burglary and firearms violations for court.