Four females and a man were killed and three others were wounded in a mass shooting Wednesday night in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, police tell WPXI-TV reports.

The shooting was reported just before 11 p.m. Police remained on the scene early Thursday morning and said there were no suspects in custody.

The incident occurred in the 1300 block of Franklin Avenue, a residential area in the Pennsylvania borough, which is near Pittsburgh.

The shooting happened during a party, Allegheny County Police said. The victims names and ages haven’t been released.

This is a breaking story. Here is what we know so far:
1. The Second Shooter Opened Fire as Victims Tried to Get Into a House, Police Say

Police said at a press conference that there was a party going on in a backyard alleyway behind a house on Franklin Avenue when the two gunmen ambushed the victims.

After the first gunman opened fire, sending the partygoers scrambling to get into the house, a second shooter fired at them as they tried to get inside, police said in a press release. Four victims were found dead on the back porch of the home, according to police.

much more...

http://heavy.com/news/2016/03/wilkinsburg-pennsylvania-mass-shooting-victims-gunmen-suspects-injuries-photos-video-names-audio/

This would have potential as a national movement to try to move the needle a bit toward rationale thought about the issue in this country.

From Feb. 29 to March 3rd, there wasn't one. But from March 4th through 9th, there were eight.

I found the address and went on GoogleMaps (1304 Franklin, Wilkinsburg).
The house in the screenshot below is directly across the street from the shooting. The sign appears on a few front lawns on that street:
(GoogleMaps did the garage door photo misalignment, not me).

http://www2.alleghenycounty.us/RealEstate/Search.aspx

The house is an American four square (Through the Web Site calls it "Old Style".

http://photos.county.allegheny.pa.us/iasworld/iDoc2/Services/GetPhoto.ashx?parid=0233G00230000000&jur=002&Rank=1&size=350x263

This is an owner occupied house NOT a rental unit (The address to send tax notices is the same address as the house). The present owners purchased the house in 1974 (That was 40 years ago, thus the original owners may be dead and their children or grandchildren MAY be living in the house but no one ever changed the name in the Tax Office once the Mortgage was paid off).

We can assume the house is NOT subject to a mortgage for the tax bill goes directly to the home owner. That is generally the case when you have no mortgage. When there is a mortgage, the mortgage company pays the taxes out of any escrow account, this is to protect the banks from any sale of the house that they do not know of.

The owners paid $18.900 for the house in 1974 and it is now accessed at $6,200 (that is how bad Wilkinsburg had declined since the 1970s and it was bad then).

This house has an ally-way to its rear:

http://www2.alleghenycounty.us/RealEstate/Map.aspx?ParcelID=0233G00230000000%20%20%20%20&SearchType=2&CurrRow=0&SearchName=&SearchStreet=Franklin&SearchNum=1304&SearchMuni=866&SearchParcel=&pin=0233G00230000000

Please note, this information has been public record since before the US War of Independence. The problem has been they were kept in the County Courthouse (and during the Civil War, taking over such courthouses are an important military objective for both sides, to get copies of the maps held in those county seats that not only shown who owned what but the roads that any army had to travel on. The main roads were well known, but any secondary and parallel roads would only appear on those county maps and thus why both armies wanted those maps).

Since the expansion of the Internet since 2000, these records are now coming into the reach of most people who just can not go to their county courthouse between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. Before the net (and to a degree to this day) to look at these records you had to go to the county courthouse and dig into those records. Most had very efficient manual system to find paperwork, but again something you had to learn AND use between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm.

Thanks for sharing.
Do all counties have these real estate websites? Or did you just get lucky finding it?

It has been up for about 10 years now. To my knowledge it is the only type in Western Pennsylvania, but other counties have adopted other versions.

Somerset County PA has a very simple system:

http://www.co.somerset.pa.us/pages/realestatesearch.asp

And they tax map site:

http://www.co.somerset.pa.us/pages/maps.asp

Cambria County PA (Largest city Johnstown PA) uses the US Government GIS map system as the base for its program:

http://gis.co.cambria.pa.us/PublicGIS1/

You have to zoom in to get individual property listings.

This is becoming more and more the norm but Johnstown has its system only in the last four years and because we only updated our computer this year I could NOT access it till this year. I could access the Allegheny County and Somerset County with my old computer.

Allegheny County was caught up in the complaints about Real Estate taxes in the 1990s. The GOP gained controlled over the County Government and put a stay on reassessment, Judge Wedick ruled the refusal to re-access violated the State constitution and order a return to re-assessments every three years. That was upheld by the State Supreme Court.

Out of that lawsuit, the county came up with the program you can access to. The purpose was to give everyone access to tax information so they can file an appeal if they believe they house is over accessed. Most people did not file the appeal, for once they saw they assessment they were satisfied with it. Those people who did appeal, just ended up losing.

Thus the web site is the product of a Lawsuit. Federal Judges asked that they names be removed from the Data Base in case of threats (and this was agreed to) but massive objections occurred when Police Officers requested the same exemption (and to my knowledge NOT agreed to).

Wilkinsberg is really much nicer than the news makes it out to be.

Even Earl Scheub moved out decades ago (the old store still exists, but in the last 10 year someone finally painted over the old Scheib sign).

http://www.earlscheibautopainting.com/

My father delivered mail in the Hill Distinct of Pittsburgh in the 1980s, and notice some nice homes and blocks within the Hill District and NEVER had a problem with anyone on the hill, but he stayed away from Wylie Avenue after sunset. The same with most areas that are considered "Bad", the bad tends to be around certain areas which most people learn to stay away from.

As to Assessment value vs Market value, they are SUPPOSE TO BE THE SAME. Assessment value is what a willing buyer will pay from a willing seller. People have complained about assessments for years, but the only real problem has been low end properties. It costs about $2000 to close on a house today. On a $200,000 home that is less then 1% of the total cost to buy the home. The problem is when you are looking at homes valued less then $20,000, that $2000 in closing cost exceeds 10% of the value of the home. Thus any mortgage on real estate of less then $20,000 is rarely done for the bank does NOT want to eat the closing costs if the house is foreclosed on. On real estate in excess of $20,000, the closing costs are less then 10% and most payments will be able to cover that costs within the first year of the mortgage (and pay most of the interest).

You can buy a home with less then 1% down payment, but the Bank wants the closing costs to be paid up front. Thus if someone fails to make payment on the load, the bank can re-take the house and sell it and not lose money. For that reason most low end housing is hard to sell, the banks will give someone a personal loan to pay for such housing but not a mortgage.

As to higher end housing, i.e. more then $20,000, that real estate tends to be very accurate and is the main reason you hear business complain about real estate taxes. The best locations for Business, sell for the highest value and thus has the highest assessment. Business complain about this all the time but know that if they use they real estate taxes to point out the high taxes, no one would will care, thus they bring out the widow on a fixed income complaining about having to pay taxes on their home, even as in this case the annual taxes are $28.74.

Please note Wilkinsburg is like some other communities, they use a modified "Georgian" assessment system, The value of the land is accessed at 100% but any "improvements" such as an actual house is assessed at only 10% of true value.

On the web page the house value is $24,200, land value is $2000, house value is $20,200. Thus you add the Land Value of $2000 to 10% of the true value, (10% of 20,200 is $2,020, but for some reason it is listed as $2,200, for a total of $6,200 value for tax purposes). I suspect no one challenged the amount for the taxes are quite low.

My point is valuation of a home is the basis of its assessment value, just because the county want to assess homes at 10% of their value and businesses at a higher rate does NOT mean these two things are different from each other.

One of the comments to this story:
If it’s not a 4-yr old shooting his gun-toting momma; it’s 2 gunmen killing 5 at a backyard party. Just another quiet day in the good old US of A. Why does the Independent care, Uncle Sam doesn't

Anyone could have logged on and written it. In no way does it represent the opinions of the Independent. It does, however bluntly put, reflect the incredulousness felt this side of the pond over America's attitude to guns.

Shootings, often mass, are a daily occurrence in America. We pretty much put a stop to it after Dunblane. The answer is fairly simple and one could be forgiven for thinking that Uncle Sam doesn't care.

Its exasperating here, truly hopeless, and IF people abroad thought we were complete morons relative to this issue (and many others), it would be completely justified.

Which is what the commentator was trying to do. We don't have a gun lobby, or much of a gun culture, and the public mood was overwhelmingly behind increased control after Dunblane. I appreciate it's a lot more complicated over there, but still some of the arguments coming from the NRA leave me gobsmacked. I just can't get my head around it.

1a) out and "fascism" relative to government being bought out by big business. There is no more powerful special interest group in this country than the NRA/firearms advocates because not only do they put big money into BOTH supporting the polls they like and against polls they don't like, they have the second biggest overall influence on a voting block after the religious right.

2) To be frank, guns are toys here now. They are big time white privilege toys. And, it is a part of the conservative mindset that they gin themselves up into a lather over their "right" to have their toys in this case.

3) It is a cultural issue, as are so many of this well orchestrated "left/right" issues. The "good" people are the country people who are most often sportsman, many legitimately middle or low class. They hate the "city folk" who tend to be MUCH more open to reasonable fire arms regulation. SO, it is all part of that proxy battle.

1b) The people who make a shit load of money off gun sales and their political arms know 2 & 3 and use that to their advantage.

I live in a semi-country setting, mildly conservative.

After the Newtown elementary school shooting I saw two things.
1) My liberal friends thinking THIS is the issue that will break the logjam.
2) My conservative in laws were all sure there was gong to be new gun laws, and all ran out and bought up these $600 assault guns, and got into their stock piling guns bullshit.

I told them BOTH the same thing - nothing was going to happen.

It didn't because we are that fucking stupid. We get a mass shooting and the result - record gun sales.

It's not even much of an issue in the elections. I'm glad it's not like that over here. Our comedians sometimes go off on a rant about it. Actually Adam Hills in Australian but the show is British.

all fair game ...

Thanks for sharing.

We have three, The Last Leg, Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week. The Last Leg was originally meant as a one off to coincide with the Paralympics. Two of the presenters are disabled, but it was so popular it kept going. Have I got News For You is a quiz format with two regular team captains where news items are discussed in a jokey manner and Mock The Week is more of an excuse for stand up comics to do their acts loosely based on current events. Incidentally it's where John Oliver first appeared on TV.

It never ceases to amaze me how a local online article about a once vibrant community, mostly poor, mostly black, is met with such narrow minded comments below the article. I won't even repeat them here, they disgust me so much.

And, yes... it seems that the local papers are dying, meanwhile the Guardian and Independent international papers do a better job of electronic reporting.

the nra and the right wing will defend the shooters rights to own that gun, because 'Merica!

while the illegal immigrant that gunned down 4 people will be called a terrorist, by that same right wing.

Terrorists, or thugs, or whatever you think appropriate. People can blame "gunz" all they want but the weapons didn't decide to murder 5 people at a party. The problem is way broader than an inanimate tool.

to blame an object.

Last edited Thu Mar 10, 2016, 02:25 PM - Edit history (1)

which is certainly a possibility given the area.

white person equals crazed gunman...

any foreigner of a different shade other than white equals terrorist.

On DU if the shooter is white they are a terrorist. If the shooter is not white it is about the guns and the guns only.

while we here use our brains, the vast majority of americans do not and choose to use fear to run their lives.

so I remit, it won't matter.

when it comes to gun violence.

Handguns and semi-autos, the weapons used in this attack, should be banned.

Everybody can have all the bolt action rifles and shotguns they desire.

No more spray 'n slay.

go to South and Central America if you want to see out of control gun violence. We, on the other hand, have cut our murder rate in half over the past 20 years.

The gun homicide and gun crime rates in this country have been steady for the last 20 years. However, the number of mass shootings, like the one yesterday in Pennsylvania, are increasing rapidly. Please discard your tired NRA talking points. Gun homicides spiked in the early 90s due to crack cocaine and then went down drastically in a short period due to police getting crack under control. The NRA used that spike to spout selective statistics about "gun homicides reduced by half." The fact is that gun homicide and gun crime rates have been steady for the last 20 years. Stop posting lies and thinking people on DU will believe them. Go to FR - those dumb shits will believe anything.

U.S. Gun Homicide Rate

Rate of Gun Homicide per 100,000 People

In the United States, the annual rate of firearm homicide per 100,000 population is

2014: 3.4320
2013: 3.54
2012: 3.7020 4
2011: 3.5520 21
2010: 3.5920 23 31
2009: 3.7520 26 23 31
2008: 4.01
2007: 4.19
2006: 4.29
2005: 4.18
2004: 3.97
2003: 4.11
2002: 4.1120 32 31
2001: 3.98
2000: 3.8420
1999: 3.8820 27
1998: 3.3727

1993: 7.0733 <------Crack cocaine spike in gun homicides in 1993.

In the United States, annual firearm homicides total

2014: 10,94520
2013: 11,208
2012: 11,62220 22
2011: 11,06820 21 30 22
2010: 11,07820 30 22 23 31
2009: 11,493
2008: 12,179
2007: 12,632
2006: 12,79120 23 31
2005: 12,35220 22 23 31
2004: 11,62420 23 31
2003: 11,920
2002: 11,82920 32 31
2001: 11,348
2000: 10,80120
1999: 10,82820 27
1998: 9,25727

http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states





ALL FIREARMS DEATHS IN U.S.

avoid certain areas and you are just as safe as any place in Europe. The vast majority of Americans live very safe areas.

Where exactly should people avoid? Office parties? Backyard barbecues? Elementary schools? College classrooms?

As a public service, please tell everybody where we are safe.

they are not hard to find.

I am of course talking about the everyday violent crime that accounts for the vast majority of gun deaths. There has been exactly zero mass shootings within a 100 miles of where I live in the past 20 years so I don't live in fear of them. Where I live it is not gun violence that kills people.

I suppose the U.S.A. really doesn't have a problem.

that's all. You want to live in fear of extremely rare events? Your problem not mine.

There are certainly things we can do to reduce gun violence. Wholesale bans are not the answer.

Those are your words. I propose banning handguns and semi-autos. If you can't "defend your family" with shotguns and bolt action weapons, you must be some kind of mafia kingpin. LOL.

you want to play silly word games, knock yourself out.


I don't own guns for self defense. I live in a safe area. I own guns for recreation. And I will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.