Man, woman found shot dead in Homestead home
HOMESTEAD, Pa. (KDKA) — A man and woman were found shot to death in a home in Homestead on Tuesday.
In a news release on Tuesday, the Allegheny County Police Department said officials were notified of shots fired inside a home on West 15th Avenue in Homestead around 4 p.m. First responders found a man and woman dead inside the house, and law enforcement is investigating the incident as a double homicide.
The victims have been identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office as 45-year-old Antoinette Porterfield and 54-year-old John West.
Police said they were looking to question John Malcom Smith in connection with the double homicide. He was found Wednesday evening. He has arrest warrants for burglary and simple assault from Homestead police as well as probation violation warrants, county police said.
The preliminary investigation found officers with the Homestead Police Department responded to the shots fired call and called SWAT for assistance.
"The front door was secure," Allegheny County Police Inspector Wesley McClellan said. "We used the ram on the front of our bearcat armored vehicle to breach the front door. Then we made entry with a drone for officer safety and discovered the deceased."
Police said the home was known to law enforcement, and there was recently a domestic violence incident at the house. Police said five total shots were heard on Tuesday.
Anyone with information can call the County Police Tip Line at 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
Neighbors feel scared
A few of the neighbors KDKA-TV spoke with off-camera on Wednesday are scared. They fear retaliation and think law enforcement has not done enough to protect them.
Now, balloons are on the porch next to a boarded-up door. Investigators walked around the street on Wednesday morning trying to piece together what happened.
Neighbors said they've seen Smith behaving erratically over the past couple of weeks and reported it to police.
"And they never did anything," one neighbor said. "It took them some time to get here. Where's the swiftness? This is an emergency."
