It was a Wednesday night in March. Specifically, March 9, 2016. In the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh—technically Wilkinsburg, though the lines blur for anyone living there—a backyard barbecue was winding down. People were laughing. Kids were around. Then, the sound of gunfire changed everything. Honestly, it wasn't just "gunfire." It was a calculated, military-style ambush that left five adults and an unborn baby dead.
When we talk about the East Liberty mass shooting, we aren't just talking about another statistic in a violent year. We are talking about a case that baffled investigators, tore a community apart, and highlighted the terrifying precision of planned violence.
The victims weren't random strangers. They were siblings, cousins, and friends. Jerry Michael Shelton, Brittany Powell, and Chanetta Powell died there. So did Shada Mahone and Imani Powell. Chanetta was eight months pregnant; her unborn son didn't survive either. Two other men were hit but lived. It’s hard to wrap your head around that much loss in a single backyard.
The Night Everything Went Wrong on Franklin Avenue
The setup was brutal. Police later described it as a "pincer maneuver." One shooter used a .40-caliber handgun to flush the guests toward the back porch. As they ran for cover, a second shooter—positioned in a narrow alleyway—opened fire with a 7.62mm rifle. That’s an AK-47 style weapon.
You’ve got to understand the geography of that backyard. It was a trap. There was nowhere to go.
Investigators found nearly 50 casings on the ground. Think about that. Forty-eight shots fired in a residential neighborhood in a matter of seconds. The sound was deafening, but the silence that followed was worse. Witnesses described a scene of absolute carnage. Neighbors who ran out to help found a porch covered in bodies. It wasn't a fight that got out of hand. It was an execution.
Why this case was different
Most street violence is impulsive. This wasn't. The shooters knew where to stand. They knew how to funnel their targets. This level of tactical planning is rare in neighborhood disputes, which is why the East Liberty mass shooting stayed in the headlines for years. It felt professional. It felt cold.
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The investigation moved slowly at first. For weeks, the neighborhood was on edge. People were scared to sit on their porches. Who wouldn't be? If someone could execute a plan like that and disappear into the night, nobody was safe. Local leaders like District Attorney Stephen Zappala faced immense pressure to find answers, but the lack of physical evidence—no DNA, no murder weapons recovered immediately—made it a nightmare for the DA’s office.
The Suspects and the Legal Maze
Months later, authorities charged two men: Cheron Shelton and Robert Thomas. The theory was revenge. Prosecutors argued that the shooting was a botched attempt to kill Lamont Powell, one of the men who survived the backyard ambush. Powell had been a suspect in a 2013 murder of a man named Calvin Doswell, who was close to Cheron Shelton.
Basically, the state’s case was built on the idea of a vendetta. They believed Shelton and Thomas saw Powell was at the barbecue and decided to take him out, regardless of who else was in the way.
But here’s where it gets messy.
The trial didn't happen right away. It dragged on for nearly four years. There were issues with witnesses. There were issues with jailhouse informants. In 2020, right before the trial was set to start, the case against Robert Thomas crumbled. A key witness—a jailhouse snitch—admitted to being involved in a different murder, and the prosecution’s credibility took a massive hit. The judge dismissed the charges against Thomas just as the jury was being seated.
The Trial of Cheron Shelton
Shelton stood trial alone. The prosecution had a lot of circumstantial evidence. They had video of a man who looked like Shelton dropping off a rifle at his mother’s house. They had a "kill list" found in a notebook. They had records of him visiting his father in jail and talking in code.
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Still, the defense played it smart. They pointed out the lack of forensic links. No fingerprints on the casings. No DNA on the porch. No murder weapon ever found. They argued the police were just desperate to pin the East Liberty mass shooting on someone, anyone, because the community was demanding justice.
In February 2020, the jury came back. Not guilty on all counts.
It was a gut punch to the families. Imagine waiting four years for a trial, sitting through weeks of graphic testimony about your siblings' deaths, only to watch the lone defendant walk free. To this day, nobody has been held legally responsible for the deaths of those five people and that unborn baby.
The Lingering Impact on Pittsburgh
East Liberty and Wilkinsburg have changed since 2016. The area has seen a wave of gentrification, new shops, and high-end apartments. But for the people who were there that night, the scars are permanent. You can't just paint over a tragedy like that with a new coat of "urban renewal."
The East Liberty mass shooting exposed deep rifts in how the city handles crime. It showed the difficulty of prosecuting high-stakes cases without cooperative witnesses. In neighborhoods where "snitching" can get you killed, getting people to talk to the police is nearly impossible. This creates a cycle where killers go free, which makes people even less likely to trust the system.
Acknowledging the complexity
It is easy to look at this case and blame the police or the DA. It’s also easy to blame the jury. But the reality is more nuanced. The standard for a criminal conviction is "beyond a reasonable doubt." If the evidence isn't there, the jury can't convict, no matter how much they might suspect someone is guilty.
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Some argue that the investigation was flawed from the start. Others say the prosecution relied too heavily on unreliable jailhouse witnesses. There’s even a segment of the community that believes the real shooters are still out there, having never been on the police's radar at all.
Lessons and Moving Forward
What can we actually learn from something this horrific? For one, it changed how local law enforcement uses surveillance. The lack of clear video in 2016 led to a massive push for more cameras in "high-crime" corridors. Whether that actually prevents crime or just records it is a debate that's still raging.
The shooting also sparked a more serious conversation about trauma resources in the Black community. For a long time, the focus was just on "catching the bad guys." Now, there's more emphasis on the survivors. The people who saw their cousins die on that porch didn't just need justice; they needed mental health support that the city wasn't equipped to provide at the time.
Actionable Insights for Community Safety
While we can't change the past, there are things residents and local leaders are doing now to prevent another East Liberty mass shooting or similar tragedies:
- Street-Level Intervention: Programs like "Cure Violence" treat gun violence as a public health crisis. They use "violence interrupters"—often people with street credibility—to de-escalate feuds before they turn into backyard ambushes.
- Witness Protection Reform: To get people to talk, they need to feel safe. Strengthening local witness protection programs is the only way to break the "no snitch" culture that hampers investigations.
- Infrastructure for Peace: Improving lighting in alleys and clearing vacant lots removes the "blind spots" that shooters use to stage ambushes. In the Franklin Avenue case, the shooters used the cover of a dark, narrow space to execute their plan.
- Support for Survivors: If you are in the Pittsburgh area and struggling with the aftermath of community violence, organizations like the Center for Victims offer specialized counseling. Don't carry the weight of "neighborhood trauma" alone.
The 2016 massacre remains an open wound. It’s a reminder that even when the news cycle moves on, the families are still sitting with empty chairs at the dinner table. Justice is often messy, and in the case of the East Liberty mass shooting, it remains elusive. All we can do is remember the names of those lost and keep pushing for a system that actually protects the vulnerable before the shots are ever fired.