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Brighton Heights man sought in teen's fatal shooting outside Strip District bar

Dreamstime/TNS

Brighton Heights man sought in teen's fatal shooting outside Strip District bar

Police are searching for a 45-year-old man in the death of a teenager who was shot outside Preeti’s Pitt bar and restaurant in the Strip District last month.

Ahmir Tuli, 18, was shot the night of Feb. 21 in the 2700 block of Penn Avenue. He died the next day at UPMC Mercy hospital, a criminal complaint said. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office determined he was shot once in the head.

Mr. Tuli was the son of Preeti Tuli, who owns the restaurant. The teen had graduated from North Hills High School last year.

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Homicide charges were dropped against a Mark McClendon after police learned the name was an alias used by Howard Hawkins, 45, a criminal complaint said. An active arrest warrant for the Brighton Heights resident remains in effect, court records show.

Valerie Dixon, left, comforts Pretti Tuli, of the North Hills, as Tuli talks about the death of her son, Amir Tuli, who was killed in February, during a gun violence press conference at the Center for Victims on the South Side.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Suspect arrested in Calif. in shooting death of 18-year-old outside Strip District bar

Mr. Hawkins was charged officially Feb. 23 with homicide and drug and gun offenses. Police said Hawkins had been arrested previously under several aliases. 

People working security at Preeti’s the evening of Feb. 21 told police they assisted in ejecting from the bar an intoxicated man who was arguing with someone. The man who stayed in the bar then got into an argument with another man, later identified as Hawkins, the criminal complaint said. Hawkins was then asked to leave, the criminal complaint said. Witnesses said they watched him walk away from the bar, but he then returned.

Ahmir Tuli and Hawkins began arguing outside the bar, witnesses told police. Bar security attempted to intercede and had asked Mr. Tuli to go to his car when Hawkins fired a single gunshot, striking Mr. Tuli, the criminal complaint said. 

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Hawkins was not permitted to possess a firearm as a result of a guilty plea to aggravated assault in 1996.

Lacretia Wimbley: lwimbley@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1510 or on Twitter @Wimbleyjourno.

First Published: March 16, 2021, 6:24 p.m.

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