Man Not Charged In Apartment Shootout Deaths
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Authorities in western Pennsylvania have not charged a man in the shooting deaths of three people during a shootout with an armed robber in his apartment last year, although he faces firearm and drug counts.
Meiko Devaughn, 22, was charged Friday in Allegheny County with illegal possession of a firearm, drug possession and possession with intent to deliver, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Police said Devaughn shot and killed Kadeem Williams, 25, who had climbed into the apartment Dec. 21. Authorities said Devaughn also accidentally shot and killed his visiting teenage brother, Jaimill Kenney, 16, and his housemate, 20-year-old Akeilah Solomon.
Prosecutors had said earlier that he might not be charged, with District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. a day after the shootings alluding to the "castle doctrine," which allows people to defend themselves with deadly force in their own homes.
"We have to know all the evidence first," Zappala said at the shooting scene. "You're entitled to protect yourself."
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Devaughn was not allowed to possess a firearm after having been adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court of charges including robbery and aggravated assault in 2009, according to an affidavit. Court records indicate that he also pleaded guilty in 2013 to illegal possession of a firearm and drugs and was sentenced to nine to 18 months in jail and 3½ years of probation.
Police said earlier that Devaughn was in the "drug business" and investigators found a jar containing marijuana buds and a box containing $13,965 in the apartment.
"The amount of money and marijuana found on the scene is consistent with narcotics sales," authorities said in the affidavit.
Devaughn is also charged with receiving stolen property and other weapons counts in a separate incident a day after the shootings. Authorities said they found him in a car in front of a Larimer house where he had reportedly been staying, and he had a revolver that had been reported stolen along with ammunition and marijuana.
Court documents don't list an attorney who could respond to the charges and a listed number for Devaughn couldn't be found Saturday.
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