Witness Caught In Weekend South Side Chaos Tells Story
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- There are new details in the weekend shooting on Pittsburgh's South Side.
In all the chaos and confusion, a second vehicle was shot up by police with three innocent people inside. And one of those people is now sharing their story.
Cell phone video, taken moments after the shooting, shows a vehicle. Inside the car - which was surrounded by police - was the suspect, Donald Burris, who was shot twice during the incident.
Also in the car was his mother, Lena. She was shot in the eye.
Video shows a police officer standing on the hood of a cab with his gun drawn, not firing. The video also shows a police officer breaking the side window with a baton.
The popping sound in the video is not gunfire, it's the baton.
A short distance away, another car was crushed in the back with a bullet hole in the side door. Inside that car, Kevin Pupo and his two friends.
"We got into the back of the car," said Pupo. "About 30 seconds later, if that, we got smacked in the back by the guy who was running away."
Turns out, Burris slammed into the rear end of the jitney, and sent Pupo and his friends flying. The man driving the jitney panicked and took off.
Sources tell KDKA's Marty Griffin that a Pittsburgh police officer thought the jitney was the suspect's car and began shooting at it with Pupo and his friends still in the back seat.
"Meanwhile, I heard pops from the guns, and once the car came to a stop, there was a police officer pulling out the driver forcefully and put him on the ground, and me and my other two friends stayed in the back seat and didn't move," said Pupo.
When they did get out, they saw the bullet hole and watched police removed the slug from the car door for evidence.
Pupo does not blame police. He says they had to make a quick decision in a split second.
"I understand the need for them to stop the guy who was going at us, but I mean, they say Buick, I was in a Buick, the guy was in a Buick. I mean, split second, you gotta do what you gotta do," said Pupo.
Multiple ongoing investigations into the shooting are now focused on whether those split second decisions made by police were the right ones.
RELATED LINKS:
Police Internal Affairs, D.A. & Review Board Probing South Side Incident (1/14/13)
More South Side News
