A student from Morocco who had been in the United States for about six years was shot and killed Monday as he sat in a car in Larimer.
Othmane Lahmamsi, 23, of Monroeville, was in a car with his cousin and two other men -- the two other men are suspects -- when the shooting occurred about 1:30 p.m. in the rear of the 6700 block of Auburn Street, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. William Valenta said.
Lahmamsi, who was sitting in the driver's seat when he was shot once in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. His cousin was not injured.
Valenta did not identify the cousin other than to say he also is a Moroccan who is in the United States on a student visa.
"It's unbelievable. I don't know what happened. I'm still in shock," said another cousin, Ali Lahmamsi, from his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. "The only thing I know is that he was too young to die. He was very, very young. I don't know how my uncle is going to be able to handle this."
Valenta would not speculate on a motive for the shooting other than to say, "We don't believe it was random."
Nick Sandi, a fellow Moroccan who runs an import store on the South Side, said Lahmamsi attended classes at Community College of Allegheny County and worked for Fastlink Inc., a communication company that has an office in the East Liberty Mall.
"I don't know why anybody would shoot him. He was a quiet, hard-working kid," Sandi said. "He was drug-free. He didn't even smoke cigarettes. He was a clean kid."
Valenta said the silver, four-door sedan with Lahmamsi, his cousin and the two suspects was stopped at the time of the shooting.
Valenta said the gunman fired two shots, once inside the vehicle and another after he got out. He did not say which was the fatal shot.
The gunman and his companion were seen fleeing in a silver car. The last four digits of the license plate were listed as 0944.
After Lahmamsi was hit, the car lurched forward an estimated 60 feet before hitting a utility pole at the corner of Ashley Street and Dix Way.
The impact knocked off the front bumper and caused the airbags to deploy, sending enough dust into the air to cause some witnesses to mistakenly believe the car was on fire.
City firefighters were called at 1:30 p.m. and found Lahmamsi still behind the wheel.
Conrad Porter was home brushing his teeth when he heard two gunshots followed by the sound of a car crashing.
Porter said he looked outside and saw a man climb through the driver's side window of the car and make a cellular telephone call.
"He stood near the car and pulled out a cell phone," said Porter, 25.
Donald Cooley, who was working on a car half a block away when he said he heard the shots, ran up and saw Lahmamsi inside the car.
"He was shot in the side of the head," said Cooley, 27.
Valenta said witnesses described one of the suspects as being either Latino or a light-skinned black man who was wearing a light blue, short-sleeve shirt. He is thin and clean-shaven with short, wavy black hair.
The other suspect is described as a thin, black man with patchy facial hair and a 1-inch Afro hair style. He was wearing a gray T-shirt and black jeans.
Anyone with information about the pair is asked to call Pittsburgh homicide detectives at 412-323-7161.
Bill Lucot, a supervisor with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, was called in to help recover some evidence from a nearby sewer for crime scene investigators, Valenta said.
Ali Lahmamsi said his cousin is survived by his parents, Hassane and Khadashi, who live in Morocco, and two brothers, Mohamed and Amin, both from the Washington, D.C., area.
Sandi said the Lahmamsi brothers were due to arrive in Pittsburgh last night.
The shooting was the city's 22nd homicide of the year, Valenta said.
