Homewood fatal shootings prompt talk of extra officers
Pittsburgh officials are considering sending extra officers to assist the city’s Zone 5 station in response to continuing violence in Homewood, where two people were killed at an afterhours gathering last weekend.
Public safety director Michael Huss said Thursday that he expected Cmdr. Timothy O’Connor, who is especially concerned about shootings and after-hours clubs, to submit a plan asking for additional resources.
“I think that if he puts together a plan for some additional resources, he’s going to get it,” Mr. Huss said.
His remarks came a few hours after local pastors Keith and Karl Edmonds and state Rep. Ed Gainey, D-Lincoln-Lemington, spoke at a chaotic news conference outside the Diverse Banquet Hall, where one of two fatal shootings occurred Sunday.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got babies lying dead in the street,” Mr. Gainey said, adding that the community can’t continue to tolerate the violence.
Both he and the Edmonds brothers asked people to come forward to help police find the person who opened fire inside the banquet hall early Sunday, killing Demetrius Broadnax, 27, and Jasmine Morris, 21. At least three others were injured.
Pittsburgh police were stationed near the banquet hall at North Homewood Avenue and Kelly Street when people who had been attending an event for the New Brotherhood Motorcycle Club came running outside shortly after 3 a.m., some asking for help because they had been shot.
Police found Mr. Broadnax and Ms. Morris dead on the basement floor. They said Mr. Broadnax appears to have been the intended target.
Call records show police have been sent to 7202 Kelly St., the address for Diverse Banquet Hall, at least seven times since July 2012 — twice for a disorderly person, twice to take theft reports, once for a fight and twice for gunfire.
Owner Terry
Fluker defended the club Thursday afternoon, saying it has held events that help the community and that he believed Sunday morning’s shooting was “ordained by God” and could have just as easily happened elsewhere.
But Cmdr. O’Connor said Diverse Banquet Hall was one of several locations he asked officers and building inspectors to focus on when they conducted saturation patrols in Homewood during the summer.
The patrols ended in late August. Mr. Huss said officials conducted the patrols in the summer months, when crime rates tend to rise.
Cmdr. O’Connor said his officers have been working with narcotics and vice detectives and liquor control enforcement officers to shut down afterhours clubs, which are difficult to monitor because they often operate at inconsistent hours.