PITTSBURGH — A man is dead and another is facing homicide charges after a deadly shooting Sunday in Northview Heights. It is the latest deadly shooting Pittsburgh police detectives have responded to in recent weeks. Others in the last month occurred in Bedford Dwellings, Sheraden and the East Hils. Police have made arrests in two of those homicide cases, including the arrest in the Northview Heights case.
Police said Devaugh Tarver, 40, shot and killed his childhood friend Leshawn Rucker, 38, Sunday afternoon following a heated dispute over $300.
In our investigative series Getting Away with Murder, 11 Investigates found Northview Heights has one of the worst homicide closure rates in the city. In the last five years, 75 percent of the homicides in Northview Heights are unsolved.
11 Investigates requested and reviewed homicide data over a 5-year period, every case that occurred from 2021 through 2025.
To review the data compiled by 11 Investigates and maps showing homicide solve rates in every neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh and across Allegheny County, follow the links.
Northview Heights was not the only neighborhood with a high rate of unsolved cases. More than half the homicide cases during that 5-year window went unsolved in neighborhoods including the East Hills, Homewood North, Brighton Heights, Carrick, Garfield and East Liberty.
Zero of the homicides that occurred in Crawford-Roberts during the 5-year period have been solved.
11 Investigates found citywide, 43 percent of the homicides that occurred within the 5-year time frame are unsolved. Among county police cases, 26 percent of cases are unsolved. 11 Investigates took all of our findings to Public Safety Director Sheldon Williams.
Investigative Reporter Jatara McGee asked Williams if the current homicide solve rates are acceptable.
“Sometimes the data, it sounds in one way. And I’m not disregarding the data that you present. But if you have two incidents and solve one, that’s 50 percent,” Williams said. “I would rather be also on the forward end as to why those incidents happen in that area and what are we doing proactively so we don’t see those numbers again.”
McGee provided examples to Williams of neighborhoods with far more than two homicide cases and again asked if he considered those statistics acceptable.
“So, acceptability, once again any unsolved -- any unsolved murder at this point in time puts a burden on us. One, two, five, ten, twenty,” Williams said. “It’s just as alarming that one occurs as twenty.”
“Coming back to your question, the number itself of being unsolved is not distinctly alarming. It is what it is. It’s historic,” Williams said.
Williams, a former city paramedic and police officer, said the department has made strides in building trust with the communities that officers serve. That is key in improving cooperation detectives get during investigations.
“I know specifically for Northview Heights that there has been a healthier relationship with the police department,” he said, referencing progress made since his time as an officer.
Williams told 11 Investigates this week he hopes to have a violence prevention specialist hired by the end of the summer. The city is specifically looking for someone with experience in violence interruption, who can work with police and the community to curb crime.
He also said he has been part of recent conversations with the housing authority about providing more resources to address crime in troubled neighborhoods.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
©2026 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
