Slain boy led troubled life

Keith "Spud" Watts Jr. had a sad, troubled and short life.

Watts, 16, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting Wednesday near Carrick High School, where he was a ninth-grader.

His friend, Alfred "A.J." Grimmitt, 17, who was wounded in the shooting but is expected to survive, also has known sadness and hard times.

Watts was an orphan of gun violence. Like his parents, he was sitting in a car when he died.

His father, Keith W. Watts Sr., 31, also known as "Spud," was shot and killed Dec. 10, 1999, in a drug-related shooting in Beltzhoover. His mother, Paula Poellnitz, was found shot execution-style on Dec. 19, 2001, in the Hill District.

Trouble seemed to follow the younger Watts, who was living in Knoxville with his grandmother, Wendy Watts.

He spent some time at the after-school program at The Academy, a school on the South Side. The program, for those in the juvenile court system, helps teach young offenders a trade, anger management and about the rights of victims.

Watts was removed from the program by the courts on Feb. 10, a day after the school van in which he was riding was ambushed by gunmen near his home, said Joseph Daugerdas, executive director at The Academy.

Watts was the target in both shootings, which appear to be related, police said.

Yesterday was Watts' first day of school at Carrick, but he apparently cut or was late for class.

The Options Center, the Pittsburgh Public Schools alternative school for suspended or expelled students, had suspended Watts for 10 days for undisclosed reasons.

His cousin, Angel Mays, acknowledged that Watts had been kicked out of The Academy, but she said he was trying to turn his life around. She said he adored her daughter and was trying to help the toddler learn to walk.

"Keith was a family person. He was always very happy," Mays said.

She said Watts was under house arrest and was ordered to wear a monitoring device on his ankle after the school van ambush outside his grandmother's Arabella Street home.

Another cousin, Darryl Upshur, said: "This whole thing happened over nothing. It was about some kids trying to prove something."

Carol Gajewski, who lives across the street from Wendy Watts, called Keith Watts a friendly, outgoing young man.

"Keith never bothered anybody. This is just so awful, and Wendy has been through so much already," Gajewski said.

No one has been charged with the deaths of Kevin Watts Sr. or Paula Poellnitz.

The elder Watts, a father of four whom police described as a mid- to upper-level drug dealer, was ambushed as he sat in his car on Climax Street in Beltzhoover. Two men wanted for questioning in the case each were shot and killed several days later in what police believe was a war among drug dealers.

Poellnitz, the mother of six who had a history of depression, theft and drug possession, was shot twice in the head while she was behind the wheel of her car on Rowley Street in the Hill District. There was cash in her purse, which sat beside her.

The motive for the slaying remains a mystery.

Grimmitt, who grew up in St. Clair Village, is the child of divorce.

He lives in Turtle Creek with his father, John Grimmitt, who said he has worked hard to give his son a good life.

"He's his own kind of guy. I taught him to be independent. I can set my watch to when he leaves for school, when he comes home, when he goes to sleep," said Grimmitt, 48, an account manager for a janitorial firm at Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay.

"He's not out roaming the streets, and he's not dealing drugs or drug-affiliated."

On weekends and times when classes are not in session, A.J. Grimmitt often works for his father, filling in for custodians who call off sick.

John Grimmitt said his son was talking and in good spirits last night, although the 11th-grader kept "playing (the shooting) over in his head."

A.J. Grimmitt was leaving school early because he and at least one friend had been late for their final period of class, and were barred from getting into the classroom, the divorced father of two said. Keith Watts Jr. was going to give Grimmitt a ride Downtown, where he could catch a bus to his home in Turtle Creek, John Grimmitt said.

"He normally takes the bus from Carrick every day," John Grimmitt said.

"I don't know why he was getting a ride Downtown from this friend Keith. I guess (the shooters) were lurking outside waiting for a kid from St. Clair" Village.

John Grimmitt expressed sympathy for the Watts family and relief that his son will survive.

"If the car was parked the other way, and the shooters came up on the passenger side, it could've been him. It's a blessing that he didn't end up like the other kid."

Yesterday's shooting was not the first time violence has touched the Grimmitt family.

A.J. Grimmitt's uncle, Deron Grimmitt Sr., 32, was fatally shot in December 1998 by then-Pittsburgh police Officer Jeffrey Cooperstein while fleeing other officers in a car chase Downtown. Cooperstein was fired, but acquitted of murder charges by an Allegheny County jury in 2000.

Deron Grimmitt was John Grimmitt's brother.

"That's old news and unrelated to what's going on," John Grimmitt said.