'Everybody knows each other': Neighbors mourn victims of Wilkinsburg shooting
Wilkinsburg residents are trying to make sense of what happened at a family gathering that ended in a mass shooting behind the little house in the 1300 block of Franklin Avenue.
The quiet street, lined with muddy sidewalks and two-story brick homes, was silent with the occasional car passing Thursday afternoon.
“In our neighborhood, everybody knows each other, and something happens like this?” said Hosea Brassell, from over his back fence. He lives on the corner of Midland and Franklin, two doors from the home where the slayings took place.
Many homes spanning the two-lane street are brick, built close together with walk-up porches, and have modest backyards fitted against alleyways.
Brassell, who has lived on Franklin Avenue for 13 years, said he has never had a problem on the street. He describes those who were killed as “nice kids” and said one victim walked down the street regularly with her daughter.
“We speak. They speak, and we would give the little girl Popsicles and things like that,” said Brassell, referring to the daughter of the slain Brittany Powell.
“(Brittany) just got a new job and thought she was going to really be able to take care of her daughter. That's just terrible,” he said.
People mourned the victims during a vigil outside the house Thursday evening.
Police investigated seven homicides in Wilkinsburg last year. The borough almost reached that total in a single night with six killed and three wounded, two critically.
Robert Bey of Greater Pittsburgh Area MAD DADS, which works to make communities safer, said the group has conducted patrols on the block where the shootings took place and its alley during the past two years because citizens complain about vandalism, hearing gunshots and other “rowdy activity.” The group leads community street patrols and develops community-based programs. Bey was in the neighborhood Thursday to offer support.
“We are very disheartened for what occurred,” he said. “We're sad for the family. We pray for them, and we trust that those that are hospitalized will recover.”
Neighbor Carl Morris called Powell a “beautiful person” and said that he can't understand “what these women could have done for someone to come after them like that.”
A former resident of Wilkinsburg, Michelle Griffith, 56, stopped by to drop flowers on the front porch in memory of the victims.
“I grew up in this town, and this breaks my heart,” said a tearful Griffith.
Though she left Wilkinsburg 12 years ago, Griffith said she felt obligated to return. She laid the flowers beside a teddy bear and Bible that had been placed there.
“I still care about the neighborhood,” she said.
Samson X Horne is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. Reach him at 412-320-7845 or shorne@tribweb.com.
