On a tragic Friday afternoon, August 22, 2014, the life of 34-year-old Tina Crawford was violently cut short in a hail of gunfire within the garage of her mother's home in Pittsburgh's Hill District. Her mother, Patsy Crawford, then 63, was also shot and seriously wounded in the attack but survived. The brutal shooting, which involved at least 20 shots fired by three assailants, was a calculated act of witness retaliation.
Tina Crawford had become entangled in the drug trafficking world, working as a courier for a major heroin dealer named Price Montgomery. She was scheduled to meet with federal prosecutors just minutes after she was killed to provide information against him. This cooperation with law enforcement made her a target. The timing of the attack was chillingly precise; it occurred less than 75 minutes before her scheduled meeting at the U.S. Attorney's office. The gunmen, with their hoodies drawn tight to conceal their identities, cornered the two defenseless women in the garage and opened fire, hitting Tina eight times.
The investigation into the murder led federal authorities to Price Montgomery. He was identified as the orchestrator of the killing, his motive being to silence a key witness against his lucrative heroin operation. In April 2016, a federal grand jury indicted Montgomery on charges related to the murder of Tina Crawford and the attempted murder of her mother. The charges included tampering with a witness by killing a person and use of a firearm resulting in death.
After a two-week trial in November 2018, a jury found Price Montgomery guilty of the murder of Tina Crawford and the attempted murder of Patsy Crawford. Evidence presented at trial detailed his role as a major drug dealer and the motive behind the silencing of a federal witness. Another man, identified as Montgomery's cousin Glenn Thomas, was believed to be the second shooter. On July 22, 2022, Price Montgomery was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 80 years for his crimes, ensuring he would spend the remainder of his life behind bars.
