Mother loses a second son to violence

Victim was one of three shot at Airbnb in Hill

Marlisa Smith sat on her front porch Thursday, a few feet from a bullet hole in her front window, and talked about her son.

She mentioned his music and how he was quiet around people he didn’t know but was loud with those he did.

She spoke about his death two days earlier at an Airbnb in the Hill District and about another son who was fatally shot in 2015.

Tyrese Smith, 20, was shot late Tuesday at a graduation party in the 3300 block of McNeil Place. Ms. Smith said he was hit more than 11 times in the attack, which also killed 17-year-old Alexus N. Chester — it was her birthday — and wounded a third person whose name has not been released.

Pittsburgh police have not named any suspects in the shootings.

Ms. Smith, 46, knew her son had disputes. A couple of months ago, someone shot up their house in Fairywood in the middle of the day. No one was hurt, and Ms. Smith said that beef was settled a while ago. She hasn’t yet repaired the window.

“All guys go through beefs,” she said. “He dealt with it in his own way . ... They were bold enough to come down here shooting. But that’s old.”

She didn’t think her son, who rapped and posted music videos online, was mired in any current disputes, although she said beefs between rappers are common.

“The music in the street, they go back and forth with different neighborhoods,” she said. “That’s how it works.”

She saw her son before he left for the party and said he went unarmed.

“He’s thinking he’s not going to get into any problems,” she said. Now, she wishes she had stopped him from leaving.

Mr. Smith had two children on the way. He was funny and talented, said his stepfather, Djamil Sanders, 49. Mr. Smith’s music videos gained thousands of views on social media; they focus on themes of violence, drugs and street life.

In 2017, Mr. Smith was charged with carrying a firearm without a license, making threats and possessing a controlled substance; those charges were dismissed in 2018.

Mr. Sanders had hoped Mr. Smith could make a future for himself through rap. But others, like his grandmother, Vivian Smith, 69, were wary.

“They have guns all the time, and it seems like they’re very argumentative about different things, short-tempered,” she said. “They have big egos.”

She added that she doesn’t know what motivated Tuesday’s shooting. Mr. Smith’s family wasn’t sure whether Mr. Smith knew Alexus or whether they just ended up at the same party.

The 17-year-old was taken to UPMC Presbyterian in critical condition after she was shot, and she died there about 3:12 a.m. Wednesday. Her family could not be reached Thursday.

Ms. Smith looked for her son at UPMC Presbyterian and another hospital after she heard about the shooting. But then she realized he

was still in the house; he had died at the scene.

As of Thursday afternoon, she hadn’t seen his body yet.

When her older son, 22year-old Thomas Peebles, was killed in Johnstown in 2015 — shot to death in what authorities said was a robbery gone wrong — seeing his body was hard.

“It’s emotional,” she said. In Mr. Peeble’s death, police found the killers and they were convicted and sent to jail. That brought some closure, Ms. Smith said. She hopes Pittsburgh police can find Mr. Smith’s killer, too.

“Because if not, it just keeps going on and on,” she said. “It will be a back-andforth thing between these young boys. Everybody wants to settle it their way. Nobody wants to talk anymore.”

She plans to have Mr. Smith’s body cremated, like his brother.