In the early evening of May 9, 2022, 17-year-old Isaiah Dennis Anderson was standing outside a market in the 700 block of East Warrington Avenue in Pittsburgh's Allentown neighborhood when his life was cut short in a sudden burst of gunfire. The attack, which police believe was an ambush, also wounded two other people. An 18-year-old man was left in critical condition with gunshot wounds to his upper body, and a woman was grazed in the leg. Isaiah was pronounced dead at the scene.
He was a student at the Pittsburgh Student Achievement Center, having previously attended Carrick High School, and was just a month away from graduation. Described as a straight-A student, his family later received nine school awards he had earned.
The investigation into the shooting led authorities to identify three suspects. In September 2022, Nazair Macon, then 17, was arrested and charged as an adult with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and several other offenses. He was taken to the Allegheny County Jail. Two other men, Malik Terry and Joseph Koller, were also charged in connection with the fatal shooting. Investigators utilized surveillance video which showed a car circling the block before the shooting. This vehicle was traced to Koller, who later admitted to police that he had dropped off Terry and Macon just before the incident. A video found on Koller's phone reportedly showed the three men together about half an hour before the shooting, wearing the same clothing as the individuals seen at the crime scene.
In April 2025, Nazair Macon, then 20, and Malik Terry, 21, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. Despite the objections of Isaiah's family, who wished for the case to go to trial, a judge accepted the plea deal. Both Macon and Terry were sentenced to 15 to 30 years in state prison. Isaiah's mother expressed her profound disappointment with the sentences, calling them a 'miscarriage of justice' and far too short for the violent act that claimed her son's life after he was shot 17 times. Joseph Koller's case was still pending at the time of the plea deal.
