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Police: Mother of 6 shot after argument over money for diapers

PITTSBURGH — A single Pittsburgh mother of six young children was slain Monday when she and her ex-boyfriend, the father of her 3-year-old daughter, argued over money for diapers and baby wipes, police said.

A man whom police called a person of interest in the shooting death of 28-year-old Marqua Wilson was located Tuesday evening and named as a suspect in her murder.

A Channel 11 news crew was at Pittsburgh Police Headquarters as Markese Reese, 20, of Verona, was escorted inside for questioning.

"I turned myself in," he said as officers led him inside.

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However, a press release from police said officers located him at 7:20 p.m. Tuesday at the home of an acquaintance in the 8000 block of Chaske Street in Penn Hills.

Reese was arrested and charged with homicide on Tuesday night.

On his way to jail, Reese told reporters that he did not kill Wilson and that he loved her.

Authorities said Wilson was found Monday with a gunshot wound to her head on the second floor of a townhome on Wilner Drive in Pittsburgh’s East Hills neighborhood.

Police said Reese had stayed at her townhouse on the night before the shooting.

Witnesses told police that they saw Reese running from the home around 1 p.m. Monday.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by Channel 11 News, one witness inside the home said she heard a loud “boom.”

"Shortly after, Reese came down the steps covered in blood,” the witness said according to the complaint. “Reese stated, ‘Don’t say anything. I need you to come upstairs. She’s hurt. You know we were both fighting.’”

The paperwork also revealed why the pair had been fighting.

According to the criminal complaint, Reese brought diapers for Wilson’s children to the townhome on Sunday night. He and Wilson began drinking “vodka until 2 a.m.” and went to bed together, the complaint said.

A witness told police that the next morning they began arguing. The witness said Reese wanted money from Wilson for the diapers and baby wipes that he brought to her.

Investigators searched for Reese Monday evening at locations in Penn Hills and North Versailles with the assistance of SWAT, but he was nowhere to be found.

According to the criminal complaint, police talked to Reese on the phone to negotiate his surrender.

"He uttered, ‘We were struggling over a gun and it accidentally went off and I ran,’” the criminal complaint said.

Police said Reese agreed to meet them at a motel in North Versailles, but when officers arrived, he was not there.

Despite what authorities said Reese told them on the phone, he took to social media late Monday night to declare his innocence.

“That’s my baby’s mom, and I’m innocent. I love her to death,” he reportedly wrote on Facebook. “Everybody knows our history back in the day. We used to fight. I’m mourning more than anybody. (I) wasn’t even there and they know that.”

The estranged couple’s history dates back to 2013. Wilson obtained a temporary protection from abuse order against Reese twice, telling police that he beat her.

“I fear for my life and (the) life of my children, including the one we share together,” she wrote. “About a year ago, he beat me with a metal broom to the point I received nine stitches.”

Wilson’s family has yet to speak publicly but was seen gathered outside the crime scene on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, a woman who used to live next to Reese told Channel 11 News that she wasn’t surprised that he was arrested for criminal homicide.

“His history, the whole demeanor about him, that fits him to a ‘T,’” she said. “I was afraid of him.”

WPXI

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