this mother would still be alive, 3 young black men (aged 18, 19 and 20) would not be looking at life in prison. how's that war on drugs working out. read your local paper kids and just imagine if drugs were legal, how many stories wouldn't be in the paper.
East Hills mom slain in break-in
Police say she ran a safe house for drugs
Monday, July 12, 2010
By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Three masked gunmen intent on ripping off a drug dealer's profits kicked in the door of an East Hills home early Sunday, terrorized the occupants and threatened to kill an 8-year-old boy in a squeeze play to get his mother to turn over drug money.
When city squad cars began rolling up to 2340 East Hills Drive in response to a frantic 911 call about a home invasion, an exchange of gunfire began, leaving the boy's mother dead, at least one suspect wounded and an innocent man injured.
Richard Woodward III
Arika Hainesworth
After retreating upstairs to escape police, the gunmen broke out windows on the building's second floor and shot down at the officers arrayed below in a courtyard and parking lot.
They eventually escaped the chaotic scene by leaping from the windows and running into the woods. Two remained at large -- one possibly wounded, judging by a blood trail clearly visible at the rear of the complex -- as of Sunday night.
The victim was identified as Arika Hainesworth, 24. She had been in the apartment for only a matter of months and apparently lived something of a double life, according to Pittsburgh police Chief Nathan Harper.
Ms. Hainesworth was a mother raising a child, but she apparently also allowed her apartment to be used by a dealer as a safe house for drugs and possibly money, although no cash was found on the premises.
Chief Harper offered his condolences to the family. He struck a pragmatic tone, however, in describing Ms. Hainesworth's share of responsibility for her predicament and said heroin was found in her purse.
"Was she using the residence as a safe house? Yeah. Back in my time they were called mules," said Chief Harper, a former narcotics sergeant.
"The rent gets paid. The bills get paid. The utilities get paid. The kid gets clothing," Chief Harper said, speaking in generalities. "She wasn't an innocent. She was involved in the game. She put herself in that situation. She put her 8-year-old son in that situation. ... It's unfortunate they enticed her."
An aunt of Ms. Hainesworth had no immediate comment.
It was not immediately clear who fired the bullet that killed Ms. Hainesworth. Residents said she fell near a garbage bin perhaps 10 yards from her doorstep. Ms. Hainesworth was pronounced dead at 4:05 a.m. at UPMC Presbyterian.
Chief Harper said preliminary autopsy results indicate that the bullet that killed Ms. Hainesworth struck her in the chest at a downward angle, indicating that the shot came from above -- the location of the attackers.
Asked if it were possible that police killed Ms. Hainesworth, Chief Harper said, "Right now, from the looks of the autopsy, no, because the angle we have is a downward angle, and we know the actors engaged with the weapons outside the second-floor window."
The Allegheny County district attorney's office, which is investigating the incident because it involved officers firing their guns, had no comment on that information. No high-ranking official could be reached at the medical examiner's office.
Police said more than 40 rounds were unleashed during the fusillade between the attackers and the police. Chief Harper described it as a "gun battle." Five city officers who fired their guns were placed on routine administrative leave.
"To me that's 40 lives that could have been taken," Chief Harper said, noting that the fray played out in a well-populated residential area near numerous other homes.
Twelve hours after the 3 a.m. shootout, police were still searching wooded areas in the neighborhood for the pair of suspects who escaped. Officers planned to use a state police helicopter in their efforts.
Left behind inside the home were at least four guns, including an assault-style rifle, believed to have belonged to the gunmen.
Police also recovered packets of heroin worth roughly $50,000 on the street from Ms. Hainesworth's purse, Chief Harper said. More heroin was found in her son's sock.
Police said the middle-of-the-night mayhem began when there was a knock at Ms. Hainesworth's door around 3 a.m. She was in her apartment watching a movie with three friends, two men and a woman, at the time and looked out the peephole to see two men with bandanas pulled up over their faces.
The men left. Instead of calling police, Ms. Hainesworth called a man in his mid-20s whom Chief Harper referred to as "Mr. Jackson."
He came over, and when the men knocked again, Mr. Jackson peered out and then hustled everyone upstairs to hide. When the trio kicked in the door, Ms. Hainesworth called 911.
"She's saying, 'Guys are heading into my apartment to rob me. They're inside right now.' Dispatch tells her to stay on the line. They can hear glass breaking. They're ransacking the house," Chief Harper said.
"They put a gun on the 8-year-old and say, 'Give us the money or we're gonna shoot him,' " Chief Harper said. "She says, 'OK, OK.' "
Four city officers, including a sergeant, arrived a short time later with guns drawn. Chief Harper said the exact sequence of events was still fuzzy since a complete report had not been compiled following debriefing, but the robbers were heading outside when police confronted them.
The trio began shooting and officers fired back. Glass shattered. One of the suspects dropped an assault-style rifle downstairs and ran up to the second floor, Chief Harper said.
All three suspects managed to escape, but police caught up with one a short time later. He was identified as Richard Woodward III, 19, of nearby Park Hill Drive in East Hills.
Mr. Woodward was shot in the torso, likely by a police officer, and underwent surgery. He is expected to be charged with numerous offenses, including attempted homicide, aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy, robbery and reckless endangerment.
Court records show that Mr. Woodward was arrested in November by Wilkinsburg police and is awaiting trial on drug charges.
Ms. Hainesworth's male friend was shot in the hand.
None of the officers was shot, but four had minor injuries from rushing to take cover, Chief Harper said.
Weary residents lamented the night's events.
"It's just a shame. It's always something," said one woman, the mother of a 6-month-old, who, like others in the complex, declined to give her name.
Another woman said she saw one police officer taking a stance and firing from the parking lot. She said Ms. Hainesworth was lying on the ground.
"People were talking to her and telling her to hold on," the woman said. "Somebody said, 'She's breathing. Just keep holding on.' "
Residents said Ms. Hainesworth had arrived on East Hills Drive only several months ago, and court records bear that out. They show that Ms. Hainesworth, who has another young child, lived in North Braddock.
Detectives are now left to piece together the details of a stick-up crew trying to rip off a drug dealer's cache. They must sift through a considerable amount of ballistics evidence, identify the players and comb through records for any previous calls to the address.
As for the immediate goal of trying to identify the two other gunmen, police plan to review surveillance cameras from the apartment complex.
"They do have a very elaborate camera system there," Chief Harper said.
And as for the end game -- tracing the heroin to its source -- Chief Harper said: "We don't know whose drugs these are, but we have an idea."
East Hills mom slain in break-in
Police say she ran a safe house for drugs
Monday, July 12, 2010
By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Three masked gunmen intent on ripping off a drug dealer's profits kicked in the door of an East Hills home early Sunday, terrorized the occupants and threatened to kill an 8-year-old boy in a squeeze play to get his mother to turn over drug money.
When city squad cars began rolling up to 2340 East Hills Drive in response to a frantic 911 call about a home invasion, an exchange of gunfire began, leaving the boy's mother dead, at least one suspect wounded and an innocent man injured.
Richard Woodward III
Arika Hainesworth
After retreating upstairs to escape police, the gunmen broke out windows on the building's second floor and shot down at the officers arrayed below in a courtyard and parking lot.
They eventually escaped the chaotic scene by leaping from the windows and running into the woods. Two remained at large -- one possibly wounded, judging by a blood trail clearly visible at the rear of the complex -- as of Sunday night.
The victim was identified as Arika Hainesworth, 24. She had been in the apartment for only a matter of months and apparently lived something of a double life, according to Pittsburgh police Chief Nathan Harper.
Ms. Hainesworth was a mother raising a child, but she apparently also allowed her apartment to be used by a dealer as a safe house for drugs and possibly money, although no cash was found on the premises.
Chief Harper offered his condolences to the family. He struck a pragmatic tone, however, in describing Ms. Hainesworth's share of responsibility for her predicament and said heroin was found in her purse.
"Was she using the residence as a safe house? Yeah. Back in my time they were called mules," said Chief Harper, a former narcotics sergeant.
"The rent gets paid. The bills get paid. The utilities get paid. The kid gets clothing," Chief Harper said, speaking in generalities. "She wasn't an innocent. She was involved in the game. She put herself in that situation. She put her 8-year-old son in that situation. ... It's unfortunate they enticed her."
An aunt of Ms. Hainesworth had no immediate comment.
It was not immediately clear who fired the bullet that killed Ms. Hainesworth. Residents said she fell near a garbage bin perhaps 10 yards from her doorstep. Ms. Hainesworth was pronounced dead at 4:05 a.m. at UPMC Presbyterian.
Chief Harper said preliminary autopsy results indicate that the bullet that killed Ms. Hainesworth struck her in the chest at a downward angle, indicating that the shot came from above -- the location of the attackers.
Asked if it were possible that police killed Ms. Hainesworth, Chief Harper said, "Right now, from the looks of the autopsy, no, because the angle we have is a downward angle, and we know the actors engaged with the weapons outside the second-floor window."
The Allegheny County district attorney's office, which is investigating the incident because it involved officers firing their guns, had no comment on that information. No high-ranking official could be reached at the medical examiner's office.
Police said more than 40 rounds were unleashed during the fusillade between the attackers and the police. Chief Harper described it as a "gun battle." Five city officers who fired their guns were placed on routine administrative leave.
"To me that's 40 lives that could have been taken," Chief Harper said, noting that the fray played out in a well-populated residential area near numerous other homes.
Twelve hours after the 3 a.m. shootout, police were still searching wooded areas in the neighborhood for the pair of suspects who escaped. Officers planned to use a state police helicopter in their efforts.
Left behind inside the home were at least four guns, including an assault-style rifle, believed to have belonged to the gunmen.
Police also recovered packets of heroin worth roughly $50,000 on the street from Ms. Hainesworth's purse, Chief Harper said. More heroin was found in her son's sock.
Police said the middle-of-the-night mayhem began when there was a knock at Ms. Hainesworth's door around 3 a.m. She was in her apartment watching a movie with three friends, two men and a woman, at the time and looked out the peephole to see two men with bandanas pulled up over their faces.
The men left. Instead of calling police, Ms. Hainesworth called a man in his mid-20s whom Chief Harper referred to as "Mr. Jackson."
He came over, and when the men knocked again, Mr. Jackson peered out and then hustled everyone upstairs to hide. When the trio kicked in the door, Ms. Hainesworth called 911.
"She's saying, 'Guys are heading into my apartment to rob me. They're inside right now.' Dispatch tells her to stay on the line. They can hear glass breaking. They're ransacking the house," Chief Harper said.
"They put a gun on the 8-year-old and say, 'Give us the money or we're gonna shoot him,' " Chief Harper said. "She says, 'OK, OK.' "
Four city officers, including a sergeant, arrived a short time later with guns drawn. Chief Harper said the exact sequence of events was still fuzzy since a complete report had not been compiled following debriefing, but the robbers were heading outside when police confronted them.
The trio began shooting and officers fired back. Glass shattered. One of the suspects dropped an assault-style rifle downstairs and ran up to the second floor, Chief Harper said.
All three suspects managed to escape, but police caught up with one a short time later. He was identified as Richard Woodward III, 19, of nearby Park Hill Drive in East Hills.
Mr. Woodward was shot in the torso, likely by a police officer, and underwent surgery. He is expected to be charged with numerous offenses, including attempted homicide, aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy, robbery and reckless endangerment.
Court records show that Mr. Woodward was arrested in November by Wilkinsburg police and is awaiting trial on drug charges.
Ms. Hainesworth's male friend was shot in the hand.
None of the officers was shot, but four had minor injuries from rushing to take cover, Chief Harper said.
Weary residents lamented the night's events.
"It's just a shame. It's always something," said one woman, the mother of a 6-month-old, who, like others in the complex, declined to give her name.
Another woman said she saw one police officer taking a stance and firing from the parking lot. She said Ms. Hainesworth was lying on the ground.
"People were talking to her and telling her to hold on," the woman said. "Somebody said, 'She's breathing. Just keep holding on.' "
Residents said Ms. Hainesworth had arrived on East Hills Drive only several months ago, and court records bear that out. They show that Ms. Hainesworth, who has another young child, lived in North Braddock.
Detectives are now left to piece together the details of a stick-up crew trying to rip off a drug dealer's cache. They must sift through a considerable amount of ballistics evidence, identify the players and comb through records for any previous calls to the address.
As for the immediate goal of trying to identify the two other gunmen, police plan to review surveillance cameras from the apartment complex.
"They do have a very elaborate camera system there," Chief Harper said.
And as for the end game -- tracing the heroin to its source -- Chief Harper said: "We don't know whose drugs these are, but we have an idea."
