A 17-year-old wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old inside a Penn Hills home turned himself in to Allegheny County police Thursday after gunfire erupted during what investigators say was a marijuana deal gone wrong. Tayquawn Mills was charged in the case.
According to a release from the Allegheny County Police Department, Mills surrendered on September 10 and now faces charges of criminal homicide, criminal conspiracy, robbery, and burglary. As WPXI reports, investigators described a drug transaction that escalated after a dispute over payment.
The case traces back to the early hours of August 18, when Mills and another person told police they had gone to a home in the 100 block of Keefer Drive to buy marijuana from Kevin Walter, 18. Court records show the two sides' accounts of what happened next diverged, but both mentioned a dispute over payment before shots were fired. Police, according to the criminal complaint, said the shooting occurred during that meeting between Walter and Mills for the drug deal.
Two Crime Scenes, One Chaotic Night
Officers were first dispatched to the 200 block of Anthon Drive at 2:11 a.m. that night, where they found Mills critically wounded, according to police statements relayed by CBS News. Police later located Walter deceased inside the Keefer Drive home, one street over. Mills had fled to the Anthon Drive house after the shooting, and police later interviewed both him and the person who was with him that night.
Investigators also recovered a cellphone belonging to Mills inside Walter's home, according to the complaint. Crime scene technicians pulled shell casings from both a rifle and a handgun inside the residence, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Walter was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the chest, per police reports cited by TribLIVE. Mills survived his injuries.
Part of a Deadly Stretch Countywide
Walter's death came in mid-August. The shooting occurred in Penn Hills.
The Charges Against Mills
Mills faces criminal homicide charges in the case.
Mills faces the charges listed above.
