Neighbors recall the moments before deadly Monroeville apartment shooting - "I thought it was a firework."
MONROEVILLE (KDKA) - Thursday morning, you could hear a hammer at the Cambridge Square Apartments.
But these weren't the bangs neighbors heard the other day.
"[I was] just in my house cleaning -- it was like "pow!" neighbor Kimberly Lucas said.
An 18-year-old woman is dead after a shooting at the apartment complex.
KDKA-TV spoke with neighbors who were shocked and saddened after all this activity.
Lucas thought nothing of that sound. Neither did another neighbor who spoke with KDKA-TV – who didn't want her face shown.
"I was out here sitting here, smoking a cigarette," the neighbor said. "And I heard – like, I thought it was a firework."
Police say 18-year-old Albert Williams III told them he started arguing with another 18-year-old, Joselyn Thomas.
Albert told police Joselyn escalated it by picking up a pair of scissors.
Witnesses claim he shot her a total of six times – three more after she fell down.
Albert says he dropped the gun on the couch and left.
"It was just dark… you don't see nobody," Lucas said. "So you just don't think nothing of it."
Monroeville Police responded to a caller reporting a murder Wednesday afternoon. They had been looking for Joselyn Thomas – who had been reported missing.
"And the next thing I know, there were like five police cars in the parking lot."
Neighbors claim the victim's mother is the one who tipped off police – using her phone.
"The mother pinged the phone – that's how she found out that her daughter was here," a neighbor told KDKA-TV.
Albert Williams is charged with criminal homicide, carrying a firearm without a license, and tampering with physical evidence.
Neighbors we spoke with say this isn't something they've seen here before.
"I'm sad that something like that had to happen to somebody," a neighbor told KDKA-TV.
"You pray that it just stops," Lucas said. "Like, there has to be a value on somebody's life."
A preliminary hearing has been set for later this month.
