Homicide charges added against suspected U-Haul carjacker

Charges against a man accused of shooting a U-Haul employee in Pittsburgh last week during a botched carjacking have been upgraded to include homicide, days after the victim in the shooting died from his wounds.

Braijon Burton, 21, is charged with homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, fleeing police, firearms violations and reckless driving.

Jacob Jaillet, 21, died Sunday at UPMC Presbyterian, five days after he was shot.

According to the charges against him, Burton arrived at the U-Haul rental center on Washington Boulevard shortly before 5 p.m. July 27.

Burton had been in and out of the rental center several times asking about pricing and features and, on his final trip inside, he asked to look inside one of the trucks, police wrote in the criminal complaint. Jaillet offered to get the keys and show him the truck.

Once outside, Burton would tell police, he said to himself, “I’m taking this truck,” and he shot Jaillet in the head. He took the keys and the truck and made a right onto Washington Boulevard and ultimately headed toward Butler Street.

Police pursued Burton onto Route 28, where he allegedly shot at another vehicle before taking the 31^st Street Bridge exit, according to the complaint. He rammed a Pittsburgh police vehicle parked on the exit ramp, hitting the left side of the officer who was standing outside of it.

From there, he crashed into a jersey barrier, police said, and was taken into custody. Detectives said Burton told them, “I don’t know why I did it. I got the gun from my grandfather. Is the officer OK?”

“Jake was a special young man with a bright future,” Elizabeth Hertzler, president of U-Haul Pittsburgh, said in a statement. “He was genuinely loved by his U-Haul family. It may sound cliché, but he truly lit up a room. Everyone was always happy to be around Jake and so excited when they could work with him.”

He had worked for more than a year as a customer service representative at the Washington Boulevard location, and he worked at the Peach Street Marketplace location in Erie while he was attending school at Edinboro University.