In the late hours of an October night in Pittsburgh's Highland Park neighborhood, the sound of six to eight gunshots shattered the quiet, but when police responded to 911 calls, the darkness of an alleyway concealed a tragedy. It wasn't until the morning of October 25, 2022, that the body of 18-year-old Omar Omizz McCord Jr., a recent high school graduate from the nearby Garfield neighborhood, was discovered.
He was found slumped over the wheel of his car in an alley near the intersection of Ionic and Millbrae Way, having been shot and left for dead. His family was left to wonder why he was in that part of the city that night.
The young man, remembered for his humor and personality by his alma mater, University Preparatory School, Milliones 6-12, had just graduated in May. The investigation into his death, which was quickly ruled a homicide, began to coalesce around a seemingly unrelated incident that occurred less than an hour after the shooting. In the nearby Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood, police engaged in a high-speed chase with a stolen car that ultimately crashed. The driver, 20-year-old Deashawn Watson, was taken into custody on charges related to the stolen vehicle and for possessing an unlicensed gun found in the car.
Investigators connected the two events when the shell casings recovered from the alley where McCord was found matched a gun that had been in Watson's possession during the crash. While already incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail for the charges related to the car chase, Deashawn Watson was arrested and charged with the murder of Omar McCord. The charges against him included criminal homicide and multiple firearm violations. Police did not publicly release a motive for the killing that cut short the life of the young man from Garfield.
