Boy one of two fatalities in Swissvale shooting

Two people, including a boy believed to be between the ages of 8 and 10, were killed Tuesday afternoon in a shooting in Swissvale, Allegheny County Police said.

Another man also was injured in the incident, according to police.

The shooting occurred around 4:30 p.m. inside a home in the 1900 block of Columbia Avenue.

Police found a man dead and a boy who had been shot when they arrived at the scene, Allegheny County Police Lt. Andrew Schurman said. The boy was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital, where he died, according to the lieutenant.

Lt. Schurman said police have determined that the boy did not live at the house where the shooting occurred. He said police were unsure who the child was or why he was at the scene.

The other man injured in the shooting arrived by private means at a Monroeville hospital, Lt. Schurman said. There was no update on his condition.

“Shortly after the initial call for shots fired, Monroeville police were dispatched to a hospital [where] they had a shooting victim,” Lt. Schurman said.

“That victim we have determined now was involved in this incident and was driven to the hospital.”

None of the victims has been identified.

Lt. Schurman said the motive for the shooting was unclear, although it may have had to do with drugs. He said he didn’t know whether investigators had found any drugs at the scene.

“We can speculate that it might be drug-related and this might have been some type of robbery attempt,” he said.

Lt. Schurman said police believe the man who was killed, the man who was injured and the child were the only people involved, and there was no ongoing threat to the community.

“At this point we do not believe there are any other participants [in the shooting] at large,” he said.

“All the people involved in this have been accounted for.”

Investigators, however, were still trying to figure out the circumstances around the shooting, including if there was more than one shooter.

“It’s still very early,” he said. “We have firearms and ballistic evidence that the crime unit is sorting through.”

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call police at 1-833-255-8477.

Callers may remain anonymous.