Police Believe Triple Homicide Suspect Ronald Steave May Be Connected To Other Killings
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - After three months on the run, a man is under arrest and charged in a triple homicide in Homewood on New Year's Eve. But police sources tell KDKA they're looking at Ronald Steave in at least three other homicides and the death of his own 4-year-old son.
One of the victims in the triple shooting was Steave's ex-girlfriend Nandi Fitzgerald. According to text messages detailed in an affidavit, Fitzgerald threatened to go to the police about those other homicides.
The brutal homicide took three lives: 28-year-old Fitzgerald, 28-year-old Tatiana "Tay" Hill and Fitzgerald's son, 16-year-old Denzel "Buddy" Nowlin. But police believe Fitzgerald was Steave's true target.
In text messages retrieved by investigators, Fitzgerald criticized Steave for not paying child support or visiting their shared son, and she threatened to go to police about homicides she said Steave committed.
Steave was arrested on criminal homicide charges in 2015 in the death of a 19-year-old man in Homewood. Though those charges were later dropped for lack of evidence, police sources confirm they suspected him in connection with at least three other fatal shootings.
They also have been looking to speak with him about the death of his 4-year-old son Ajani Lane who shot and killed himself on Nov. 22 on Negley Avenue in Pittsburgh. Steave had been living there at the time, and according to the affidavit, police found two guns in his upstairs bedroom.
KDKA's Andy Sheehan spoke briefly with Nandi Fitzgerald's mother, Wanda Fitzgerald, who said she was too emotional to speak about Steave's arrest, but she said she would have something to say after his preliminary hearing next week.
Steave was arraigned Friday morning and formally charged with three counts of criminal homicide. He was denied bond and is being held at the Allegheny County Jail.