Police continue search for suspects in killing of Pittsburgh high school student

Police on Friday continued to search for two suspects connected to the killing of a 15-year-old waiting in a school van in Pittsburgh.

Marquis Campbell was sitting in the van waiting to go home after school about 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday outside Oliver Citywide Academy. The school, in Marshall-Shadeland, is a special education center for students in grades three through 12.

Investigators have released little in the case, saying only that two younger males wearing masks and dark clothing walked up to the van and at least one of them began shooting. Campbell was shot twice and died a short time later at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Marquis and the driver were the only ones in the van, and the driver was uninjured, police said. The Campbell family could not be reached Friday.

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• Teen dead after being shot outside school on Pittsburgh's North Side

Pittsburgh Public Schools interim Superintendent Wayne Walters said Oliver Citywide teachers remember Marquis as a diligent student with an infectious smile who had attended the school since the third grade.

“He loved school, and he was so happy today to be back after the long weekend and school covid closure,” Walters said a teacher relayed. “His sense of humor was infectious.”

Virtual Press Conference with Mayor Ed Gainey and Interim Superintendent Wayne N. Walters https://t.co/d87ZWIfKQ9

— Office of the Mayor (@TheNextPGH) January 19, 2022

Gov. Tom Wolf, in Pittsburgh on Thursday for an event with Mayor Ed Gainey, said more money must go toward community and social programs meant to help children and their families.

“The disadvantaged, marginalized communities suffer the most from gun violence,” Wolf said. “They also suffer the most from underfunding in education, housing issues, from food insecurity, all those things. This is a wake-up call for all of us.”

One day after the shooting outside Oliver Citywide, several teachers were injured in a fight among students at Carrick High School, where days earlier a student was arrested after a gun was found in the building. On Friday, a Brashear High School student was hospitalized after he was allegedly assaulted by another student.

Gun violence rising among children and teens

Deadly gun violence among children and teenagers in Allegheny County has risen in recent years. In 2019, 11 teenagers under the age of 20 died in shootings, followed by 17 in 2020. Last year, 22 children and teens were killed by gunfire, including two instances in which the shootings were accidental at the hands of siblings: 3-year-old Braya Sanders and 5-year-old Connor Wolfe. The parents of both children face charges.

In the cases of Aliah Johnson, 17, and Marcus Gibson, 15, suspects also claim the shootings were accidental.

In April alone, six teenagers were shot and killed in Allegheny County: Paul Hines, 19, Tyjuan Malachi and Kenneth Hairston, both 18, Levar Green and Isaiah Freeman, both 17, and 15-year-old Don Angelo Castapheny.

The following month saw four 17-year-olds shot and killed in less than two weeks: Daymeir Boyd, Darin Hobdy, Jason Jackson Jr. and Izeyah Clancy.

Charges have been filed in deaths of Hairston, Freeman, Clancy and Hobdy. The suspect in Freeman’s case is 15. Another 15-year-old is charged in the death of 18-year-old Hasson Shackelford, and a 16-year-old boy is charged in the killing of 18-year-old Dontae McKenith.

Other teenage victims of gun violence last year include Ahmir Tulli and Robert Cade, both 18, Christian Reddinger and Steven Eason Jr., both 15, and 12-year-old Denzel “Buddy” Nowlin Jr. Arrests have been made in the cases of Tulli and Nowlin.

“Any of our children can be next,” Shantel Pizaro, Eason’s mother, said in October as the family pleaded for information. “We want to prevent anyone’s family from going through this type of pain. Our children are our future, and they are literally taking our future away from us.”

She begged for the adults to stand up as leaders.

“We want to build a good foundation in our children. We want to teach them honesty, good morals,” she said. “Come forward with anything you may have. Please. Anything may help.”