3 teenagers charged in alleged shootout in Summer Hill
Three teenagers are being charged as adults for allegedly being involved in a shootout in a Pittsburgh neighborhood. Channel 11 sources say one of the teenagers has been charged with gun crimes 11 times.
“It really scared me that there was a lot of cops up here because that’s never happened,” said Eliza Weaver.
The night of April 14 ended with two arrests on Harpen and Evergreen Roads in Pittsburgh’s Summer Hill neighborhood.
But it started in Northview Heights Estates. According to criminal complaints, City of Pittsburgh Housing Authority cameras recorded three teenagers, Sehven Rule, Devontae Adams and Davon Reynolds, firing shots at two other males with dozens of people including kids in the area. No one was shot, but Reynolds was seen falling and limping. Officers collected 28 spent shell casings.
“Of course, the safety of the people in the community always takes precedence over everything but where are these young people getting these firearms from,” said Rise 365 Director of Youth Engagement and Outreach Ayodeji Young. “Where could three kids who live in public housing, Northview Heights? We already know the statistics and the poverty that goes on in Northview Heights. Where are they finding money and access to get guns like this? Who is giving these kids in these downtrodden areas guns?”
For two decades, Young has been working with kids to change the trajectory of their lives and solve this problem.
“How do our young men keep getting caught up in this cycle that keeps repeating itself over and over again,” said Young.
Sources say this is Rule’s 11th gun charge in about two years, and he’s just 17 years old. In this latest incident, police say Rule was aimlessly and recklessly firing a fully automatic handgun. He’s currently in the Allegheny County Jail where Young pointed out his only mentors are other criminals.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear, and in a situation like that, it’s time to look deeper than arresting the kid 11 times,” said Young. “After the first time he was caught with the gun or the second time he was caught with the gun, what intervention measures were taking place to stop and prevent this young man from continuing down this path.”
Prior to this shootout, two of the teenagers had active juvenile warrants. All three teenagers are being charged as adults and are all scheduled to be in court together on May 1.
“I wish I could have interacted with these young men and wish I can still interact with them,” said Young. “Young men like that. I don’t think it does society any good to just lock them up and put them away for X amount of years and then expect them to come back to society with a whole new fresh mindset. They need counseling. They need training. They need mentoring, and they need help. So they can change their mindset before they come back into society. We just don’t do enough of that in society at all.”
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