16-year-old charged in Jeannette double shooting
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A Jeannette teen accused of shooting and wounding two men Tuesday told investigators he had “a long-standing dispute” with the victims, according to police.
Khalil L. Myers, 16, was arraigned Wednesday on two counts of attempted homicide and aggravated assault in connection with the shooting at 4:46 p.m. inside a house at 307 S. Third St. District Judge Joseph DeMarchis ordered Myers held without bond at the county juvenile detention center.
Myers is accused of shooting and wounding Austin Mathias, 19, whose last known address is Crabtree, and Anthony Bittinger, 21, of Greensburg. Both men were transported to Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville for treatment of gunshot wounds.
Jeannette police Officer Derek Manley reported that the shooting occurred at the home of Mathias’ mother. Mathias was there visiting with Bittinger.
Bittinger told county Detective Randy Gardner from the hospital “Myers engaged in a verbal altercation with (Mathias) inside the residence.”
“Bittinger further stated that Myers displayed a handgun and discharged several rounds, striking both he and Mathias,” Manley reported in court documents.
First responders found Mathias outside the residence with a gunshot wound to his torso, according to court documents. Bittinger ran several blocks to a residence in the 400 block of South Fifth Street, where he sought help for bullet wounds to his wrist and groin.
Mathias’ wounds required surgery, authorities said.
Gardner’s interview with Bittinger led investigators to a residence in the 300 block of North Pennsylvania Avenue in Greensburg, where Myers had fled, Manley reported.
Myers was taken to the Jeannette police station where he was interviewed by county detectivesNick Caesar and Ray Dupilka, along with Manley with Myers’ mother, according to court documents.
Myers told police he went to the Mathias home with a friend and “Mathias and Bittinger came in and antagonized him and the other people present inside the residence.” Myers told police that Mathias and Bittinger “were brandishing handguns and acting irrationally” during the confrontation.
According to Myers, he then went to a second-floor bedroom and retrieved a 9 mm handgun and came back down the staircase. According to Manley, Mathias intimated that he was going to shoot Myers, who pulled out the handgun “and discharged several rounds.”
Myers told investigators he knew that he had struck Mathias and Bittinger, then he fled with two friends and disposed of the handgun, according to court documents.
Mathias and Bittinger have not been charged. The shooting remains under investigation.
Police did not disclose the specific nature of Myers’ dispute with Mathias and Bittinger.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 5.