A fatal shooting outside a Homewood bar that killed a state legislator’s sister early Friday prompted a police chase in which officers fired into the fleeing vehicle, which ultimately crashed in Wilkinsburg.
Ja-nese Jackson Talton, 29, died outside Cliff’s Bar & Grill on North Lang Avenue shortly after 2 a.m. of a single gunshot wound to the chest. Don Jones, director of the Spriggs-Watson Funeral Home, which is handling her arrangements, confirmed that she was the sister of state Rep. Ed Gainey, D-Lincoln-Lemington. Mr. Gainey could not be reached Friday.
Police obtained an arrest warrant Friday for Charles McKinney, 41, of Penn Hills, on charges including homicide, aggravated assault, fleeing and eluding police, possession of heroin and crack cocaine with the intent to deliver, and gun violations.
A witness who was working at Cliff’s told investigators that Mr. McKinney had “positioned himself against [Ms. Talton’s] ‘backside’ ” as she was walking out the door, Detective Martin Kail wrote in an affidavit.
Ms. Talton pushed him away slightly and they walked outside and across the street, where the witness saw Mr. McKinney “approach her again in the same manner.” The witness said she again rejected his advance, and he saw a “flash” from Mr. McKinney’s hip and Ms. Talton falling to the ground, according to the affidavit.
“The suspect ... pulled out the firearm and shot the victim in the chest,” assistant police Chief Thomas Stangrecki said at a news conference Friday at police headquarters.
A friend of Ms. Talton’s reported seeing Mr. McKinney running on Lang Avenue with a pistol in his right hand and another witness chasing after him, police wrote in the affidavit.
Linda Ransom, owner of Cliff’s, said she believes the two had seen each other in the bar before. Ms. Talton had been coming in once or twice a week for the last couple of months with her friends, and Mr. McKinney was a regular who grew up in the area.
Ms. Ransom said she wasn’t at the bar during the shooting, but she watched surveillance video and saw no confrontation between them inside. They left at the same time because the bar was closing, she said, and the video shows him grabbing her by the arm outside.
“We have absolutely no concept whatsoever” of why she was shot, Ms. Ransom said.
Shortly after the shooting, which activated the ShotSpotter neighborhood gunshot detection system at 1:53 a.m., Zone 5 officers saw a silver car speeding from the area. Police stopped it, and the suspect, overhearing a transmission on the officers’ radio alerting them to the shooting, drove off, leading police through Homewood-Brushton, assistant Chief Stangrecki said.
Detective Kail wrote in the affidavit that Mr. McKinney stopped after driving into a snowbank and when an officer tried to get him to open the front passenger door, “the vehicle began to back up almost striking” two officers and then continued speeding toward several uniformed officers.
“At this time, officers fired at the [suspect’s] vehicle,” the detective wrote.
The pursuit continued across Frankstown Avenue, went briefly onto the Parkway East and ended in Wilkinsburg when the suspect crashed into two parked vehicles in the 1800 block of McNary Boulevard. He was taken into custody at 2:06 a.m.
Police Chief Cameron McLay, who was out of town Friday, told officers in November that they should not shoot at moving vehicles “under any but the most extreme circumstances” and that the driver “must manifest intent to kill.” The chief also told police they should chase vehicles only if people were suspected of violent felonies.
“In this case here we had a suspect fleeing the scene of a homicide. Our policy permits us to engage in a pursuit for cases such as this,” assistant Chief Stangrecki said.
Mr. McKinney was taken to a hospital in stable condition with injuries to his forehead and wrist. Assistant Chief Stangrecki said he didn’t know whether those injuries were from a gunshot wound or from the crash. The detective wrote in the affidavit that Mr. McKinney was shot in the left temple.
He said police also found a gun on him.
Assistant Chief Stangrecki wouldn’t identify the two officers involved in the shooting; they have been placed on administrative leave. He said each had been on the force for 3½ years. The Allegheny County District Attorney’s office will review the shooting of Mr. McKinney.
First Published: January 22, 2016, 11:27 a.m.
Updated: January 23, 2016, 4:04 a.m.
