Shawn Allen Brookins, 27, male, was shot and killed in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, in the early morning hours of June 14, 2022. Police and medics were called just before 2 a.m. to a home in the 200 block of Crescent Pines Drive, where Brookins was found dead inside the residence. Early reports identified him as being from Verona, and authorities said homicide detectives with Allegheny County police took over the investigation after Penn Hills officers responded to the scene.
Brookins had
been inside the home with his longtime girlfriend when the violence unfolded. According to later court details reported after the case moved forward, the power went out at about 1:48 a.m., and Brookins went to the basement to check on it. Moments later, his girlfriend heard two gunshots. She then saw two people fleeing from the house, leaving Brookins fatally wounded inside what had been his home.
In the first hours after the killing, neighbors described the area as quiet and said they had slept through the police response. Family members remembered Brookins as a devoted father, brother and uncle, with his young daughter, Arabella, described by his sister as the center of his life. At that point, police had not yet announced any suspects and asked the public to contact the county tip line with information.
The first major arrest came on July 29, 2022, when Allegheny County police arrested Brandin Demonde Jackson, then 30, in connection with Brookins’ death. Police said Jackson was one of the people responsible for the shooting. He was charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide and burglary, and he was taken to the Allegheny County Jail after his arrest by the county sheriff’s fugitive squad.
A second man, Raquan Jackson, was charged in October 2022. Police said Raquan Jackson conspired with Brandin Jackson in the killing and that phone data linked him to the crime. Later reporting stated that the two Jacksons were not related, and prosecutors described Raquan Jackson as the getaway driver. Investigators tied the men to the killing through cell phone messages, GPS data from Raquan Jackson’s vehicle and license plate reader cameras.
The case eventually resolved with guilty pleas. In April 2025, Brandin Demonde Jackson, then 33, of Wilkinsburg, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, burglary, conspiracy and a firearms count for the fatal shooting of Brookins. Raquan Jackson, then 24, of Penn Hills, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit homicide, while charges of criminal homicide and burglary against him were withdrawn. Prosecutors said Brandin Jackson was one of two people who killed Brookins, but a third suspect had not been charged. Both men were scheduled to be sentenced on July 10, 2025, before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos.
