Teenager arrested in funeral service shooting charged in another shooting
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A teenager charged in the shooting of a funeral home in October has now been charged in another shooting that took place in August.
Hezekiah Nixon is now facing homicide charges in connection to a shooting that took place on Aug. 7 in the North Side, a shooting that left three injured and one dead. Nixon is also charged in a shooting that left five people injured outside of a funeral service.
Police didn't know then that finding a gun Nixon allegedly threw into the Ohio River after the funeral shooting would help them solve the August shooting.
Investigators connected Nixon to a fatal shooting by matching casings found at the scene with that gun. Retired FBI agent Mike Hochrein said this case may have gone unsolved had it not been for forensic ballistics.
"If they have matched it to the exact weapon that means they have enough unique marks," said Hochrein, who is also an adjunct professor at LaRoche College. "They have test-fired and those marks match dead on, so they can make the connection between the weapon and the cartridge case."
Hochrein explained to KDKA-TV how police made the connection between the two shootings. He said a forensic examiner test fired the suspect's gun and then compared the marks from those casings to marks on the casings from the North Side case.
"The marks that are left on that cartridge case can be unique to the type of weapon and they can tell at a minimum a class characteristics, meaning the type of weapon that was used," he said.
Nixon, who is already in the Allegheny County Jail, is facing firearms violations, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, aggravated assault, and attempted homicide charges related to the funeral service shooting.
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