On a summer evening in Pittsburgh's East Hills neighborhood, the life of 22-year-old Dersean Alberty-Brown, a Black/African American male, was cut short by gunfire. On August 19, 2015, Alberty-Brown, a former high school football star from Sharpsville, accompanied three other men to a house on Fahnestock Street with the intention of buying marijuana. The sellers were two men named Deshawn Hall and Raymon Harris.
What began as a supposed drug deal quickly devolved into a violent robbery.
Inside the residence, one of the men who came with Alberty-Brown was reportedly clubbed with a gun and ordered to strip while Harris searched his pockets for money. When Hall ordered Alberty-Brown to come inside, a sense of danger must have prompted him to turn and run back toward the car they had arrived in. Hall gave chase, and as Alberty-Brown raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, Hall shot him multiple times at point-blank range. Dersean Alberty-Brown was rushed to a local hospital but ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
The investigation into the homicide moved swiftly. Pittsburgh police identified both Hall and Harris as the suspects. Raymon Harris was taken into custody the day after the shooting and charged with criminal homicide, robbery, and conspiracy. His accomplice, Deshawn 'Mookie' Hall, the man who police said pulled the trigger, went on the run. A warrant was immediately issued for his arrest on the same charges. The manhunt for Hall lasted for several months until November 9, 2015, when U.S. Marshals, acting on information developed by Pittsburgh police, located and arrested him without incident in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
In July 2018, both men faced justice for their roles in the fatal robbery. Deshawn Hall and Raymon Harris pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, conspiracy, and two counts of robbery. Hall, who admitted to being the gunman, also pleaded guilty to attempted homicide and aggravated assault and received a sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison. Raymon Harris, who was not the shooter but participated in the robbery that led to the murder, was sentenced to serve six to 12 years in prison for his part in the crime.
