PITTSBURGH — Over the course of three months in 2022, the North Side was the focal point of three high-profile shootings, which we later learned were all somewhat connected to each other.
Most recently, Hezekiah Nixon, Andrew Johnson, and Tylajae Allen all pleaded guilty to their roles in a shooting in August that year.
Surveillance video shows the chaos on Brighton Place in California, Kirkbride, as people ducked to get out of the way of gunfire.
Stephone Drayton was killed.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> 1 killed, 3 injured in shooting on Pittsburgh’s North Side
This shooting marked the beginning of violence across North Side neighborhoods.
Surveillance video from the Sunoco along Cedar Avenue shows the next shooting, where you see flashes of gunfire light up the screen.
Two innocent women, Betty Jean Averryt and Jacquelyn Mehalic, were killed when dozens of gunshots were fired along Cedar Avenue near the giant eagle and the Sunoco.
John Hornezes was also killed that night. Police say he was a part of that shootout.
Hornezes’ funeral was planned for a few days later at Destiny of Faith Church in Brighton Heights.
As his family and friends gathered, police say Hezekiah Nixon and Shawn Davis started firing guns at the church.
Six people and a horse were shot.
Surveillance video from that day shows how quickly police say Nixon and Davis got into the church, started firing, then ran off – all in just 2 minutes.
After this shooting, police say Nixon threw a gun into the river. When detectives found it, they say it matched with the weapon used in the first shooting on Brighton Place.
That gun was a key piece of evidence in leading detectives to Nixon — who will receive his sentence for Stephone Drayton’s death — on the same day his trial starts for the funeral shooting.
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