Family: 2 Children Witnessed Torrance Murder
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pennsylvania State Police are still looking for the man they think pulled the trigger in a bizarre homicide that resulted in three arrests so far.
And Monday night, the victim's relatives say they can't imagine the toll it's taking on two of the witnesses to the shooting -- two small children.
The victim was 24-year-old Michael Volk of New Florence.
Police say surveillance video taken from a Burrell Township Walmart shows the gunman too -- only known to them as "Mitch."
The image was taken the day before Volk was shot to death in a mobile home on Stone Quarry Road in Derry Township, Westmoreland County not far from Torrance State Hospital.
The victim was found lying in a hallway.
Family members say of all that have happened in that house, one of the things that concerns them is that it happened in front of two small children.
"We're all torn apart about it, you know," Volk's cousin John Palmer said. "Kids seeing it, what happened over there."
The children are with other relatives now.
Police say the toddlers were the children of Jesus Santiago and Tiffany Blattenberger, two of the suspects charged with conspiracy and who are now in jail.
A third suspect, Danielle Clawson, was the victim, Volk's, girlfriend.
Police say all three conspired to rob the African American man known only as "Mitch" of heroin and money.
And they say all four, including "Mitch," knew they were going to rob him.
What they didn't know was how all this would end and that "Mitch" would retaliate the way he did, according to police.
Volk's cousin has a message for the fugitive.
"Turn yourself in," Palmer said. "Get it over with."
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Pennsylvania State Police in Greensburg.
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