On a late Sunday night in August 2015, a dispute that began over drug money escalated into a fatal encounter on the Parkway East in the Churchill area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, claiming the life of 24-year-old Shaka McGhie. The Forest Hills man was a passenger in a car when a violent struggle erupted.
The conflict centered around $17,000 that Keontre Easley, then 19, allegedly owed McGhie.
According to Easley's account to the police, McGhie had forced him and his girlfriend to drive around in search of the money. When McGhie threatened Easley's girlfriend, a physical altercation broke out in the backseat of the moving vehicle. During the struggle, Easley shot McGhie multiple times. After the shooting, Easley and his girlfriend exited the car, leaving it on the parkway. A woman who had been following in another vehicle, McGhie's girlfriend, stopped and got into the car with McGhie. She drove him to a nearby children's hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 11:30 p.m.
This was not the first time McGhie had been a victim of gun violence. In 2011, he was shot and seriously injured at a nightclub, an incident that his family said left him with a handicap requiring the use of a cane. They described him as not being a threat to anyone at the time of his death.
A few days after the shooting, Keontre Easley of Braddock turned himself in to the authorities. He was charged with homicide and carrying a firearm without a license. In July 2016, Easley pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and a gun charge. His defense attorney argued that the shooting was an act of self-defense, stating that McGhie had a gun and had threatened both Easley and his girlfriend.
In October 2016, a judge sentenced Keontre Easley to two to five years in prison. During the sentencing, Easley apologized to McGhie's family, who delivered emotional victim impact statements. The judge, while acknowledging Easley's potential and good background, noted his choice to engage in a dangerous lifestyle involving drugs and guns.
