On a summer afternoon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the life of 22-year-old Tarue Johnson, a Black male, was cut short by gunfire. It was around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 25, 2018, when police responded to reports of shots fired at a home in the 1500 block of Swissvale Avenue in Wilkinsburg. Inside, they found Johnson, who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the head and neck.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
At the time of his death, Johnson was a man entangled with the law. He was wanted on charges that he had stolen his sister's car in May of that year and led Wilkinsburg police on a chase. He had managed to evade capture after abandoning the vehicle and had been on the run since. This was the latest in a series of legal troubles that dated back to his teenage years. In 2014, at the age of 17, Johnson was charged as an adult for the shooting of a 15-year-old boy. While awaiting trial for that crime, a witness in the case, 17-year-old Naytel Pack, was shot and killed. Johnson's brother, Charles Stevens, was later convicted of third-degree murder in Pack's death. Johnson himself was not charged in connection with the witness's murder but pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the original shooting and was sentenced to prison. He had been granted parole but had violated its terms, making him a wanted man at the time of his own demise.
The investigation into Johnson's murder pointed to a deliberate and forceful entry into the residence where he was killed. A witness reported seeing a heavy-set Black male, his face obscured by a mask and his figure cloaked in all-black attire, forcing his way into the house just moments before the fatal shots rang out. Despite this description, the identity of the shooter remained elusive. As of late 2018, Allegheny County Police were still seeking information from the public, offering a reward for any tips that could lead to an arrest and conviction. The motive for the killing was not publicly determined, and no arrests have been announced in the years following the incident, leaving the death of Tarue Johnson an unsolved homicide.
