Warrant issued in Homewood triple homicide

Pittsburgh police filed charges in a triple homicide in Homewood on New Year’s Eve.

Ronald Steave, 29, has been charged with three counts of homicide in connection with the shooting deaths of Nandi Fitzgerald, 28; her son, 12-year-old Denzel “Buddy” Nowlin Jr.; and Tatiana Hill, 28.

Police responded to reports of gunfire about 4 a.m. and found one of the women dead outside the home. The other woman and the child were found inside. All were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Fitzgerald leaves behind two children, ages 6 and 1, according to friends and family. Hill leaves behind a 5-year-old and 7-year-old.

Family and friends gathered last week in a vigil for the three.

“A mother is gone. Two mothers gone. And a son. In our neighborhood,” said Mubarik Ismaeli, president of the Homewood football team for which Nolan played. “Look around us — we’re the only ones who are going to save us. The pastors, the preachers, these executives — they’re not here. I hate it. I hate this.”

“Just when I thought I was alone — I can’t even tell everybody how amazed I am,” said Wanda Fitzgerald, Nandi Fitzgerald’s mother. “When this happened, I thought I was just by myself. This has got to be the hardest thing I got to go through.”

It is the second loss for her family in the past year. In June, one of Nandi Fitzgerald’s younger sons drowned in a hotel pool near Hershey Park.

“I’ll never be the same after what I witnessed. I tried everything I could to save my baby, but God had other plans,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page at the time. “I turned my back (and) my 6-year-old baby was drowning.”

Wanda Fitzgerald said her daughter continued to grieve for 6-year-old Norez.

“She called me Dec. 24 and said, ‘Mom, I want my baby,’” she said. “I said, ‘Cry, baby, cry baby.’ But now I know you’re with your baby.”

This story will be updated.