Duquesne teen charged in death of North Braddock's Lezra Rice
A Facebook conversation about meeting up to buy pot provided Allegheny County police detectives with the lead they needed to identify a suspect in last week's shooting death of 15-year-old Lezra Rice.
Thomas McKissick, 16, of Duquesne faces charges of homicide and possession of a firearm by a minor in connection to two nights of violence that seriously injured another 16-year-old and killed Rice, a 10th-grader from Braddock Hills.
Rice's Oct. 11 death shook the community and spurred Propel Braddock Hills High School to cancel school the next day so students and teachers could mourn for Rice, whom loved ones say was kind, uplifting and hoped to become a welder.
Authorities filed the charges against McKissick in Pittsburgh Municipal Court on Friday, nine days after Rice's death.
After-school tragedy
When the school day ended on Oct. 11, Rice walked toward Braddock Hills Shopping Center and hopped on the 59 bus line headed toward Mon Valley at 3:25 p.m., bus video surveillance shows, according to a criminal complaint.
Two hours later, Duquesne police responded to a report of gunfire near William Street and found Rice lying unresponsive in an alleyway area known as Nick Lee Hollow, the complaint said.
Rice had two gunshot wounds to his left arm, one to the base of his skull and one on the top left side of his head, the complaint said.
A doctor pronounced Rice dead at 6:26 p.m. at UPMC McKeesport. The medical examiner later ruled the death to be a homicide by gunshot wound to the head.
Rice's family held a funeral service Wednesday at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Rankin. Family members did not return a request for comment on Saturday.
Rice's phone showed that minutes before the shooting, he had been arranging a meeting via Facebook Messenger texts and video calls to a user named, “Tomas Plata” — an account police linked to McKissick, the complaint said.
Another shooting victim
The night before Rice died, McKissick allegedly was involved in another teen shooting related to a marijuana deal that helped police make the connection, according to the complaint.
At about 6:15 p.m. on Oct. 10, Duquesne police responded to reports of gunshots and people running near the Polish Hill baseball field at Grant and Belmont avenues, the complaint said.
A half hour later, a witness called 911 to report they were in her living room when they heard multiple gunshots. They told police they saw someone run toward a black car on Maple Street, get inside and drive off.
At 6:50 p.m., officials learned that a 16-year-old shooting victim had pulled up in a black car to UPMC McKeesport hospital and was being treated for a gunshot wound to his neck and face.
Police learned through multiple interviews that the injured 16-year-old — identified only as “Witness 2” — had joined two friends in the black Chrysler in an attempt to purchase marijuana from a person identified as “T.K.,” later determined by police to be Thomas McKissick.
The injured witness told police that “the marijuana was to be ‘fronted' to them, meaning that ‘T.K.' was going to provide the marijuana, but not demand payment at that time,” the complaint said.
Witness 2 exited the car and walked toward the middle of the baseball field to meet with McKissick.
“At some point during the meeting, T.K. reached into his pocket and pulled out a firearm,” the complaint said. “Witness 2 pushed the weapon away and began to run.”
McKissick then allegedly ran after Witness 2 and tackled him to the ground, and during the scuffle fired one shot, striking Witness 2 in the neck, the complaint said.
Same gun in both cases
The cellphones of Witness 2 as well as Rice revealed that just before both incidents, each shooting victim was using Facebook to arrange meetings with “Tomas Plata.”
Officer Nathaniel Smith of Swissvale Police, a school resource officer for Propel, confirmed through a prior investigation that “Tomas Plata” was McKissick's Facebook name, as did a police search of McKissick's cellphone, the complaint said.
On Wednesday, police had Witness 2 point them to the spot on the Polish Hill field where the incident happened and found five spent .45-caliber cartridge cases.
The type and brand matched the spent cases recovered from the Rice murder scene, as well as a box of ammunition police found inside a plastic bin on the back porch of McKissick's Duquesne home, according to the complaint.
The medical examiner's office believes “the spent cartridge cases from both cases were ejected from the same firearm,” the complaint said.
McKissick was unable to post $200,000 bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Nov. 17, court records show.
Trib news partner WPXI-TV contributed to this report. Natasha Lindstrom is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8514, nlindstrom@tribweb.com or via Twitter @NewsNatasha.
