PITTSBURGH — A man convicted of shooting and killing a teenager outside of his mother’s restaurant was sentenced to life in prison on Friday. His family shared their message for him with Channel 11.
“This is what I walked out of the hospital with…my son’s hair I cut, his fingerprint and his heartbeat from his last breath,” Preeti Tuli told Channel 11.
Preeti Tuli held onto those items for each step of Howard Hawkins’ court hearings, both trials, and Friday, when he was sentenced to life in prison for the death of 18-year-old Ahmir Tuli.
“To watch Howard Hawkins in court fight all these years, all the postponements, the motions he submitted… my son never had an opportunity to fight,” she said.
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In February 2021, Howard Hawkins was kicked out of Preeti’s Pit restaurant and bar in the Strip District. City surveillance cameras showed that instead of leaving, he lingered around the restaurant and grabbed a gun out of his girlfriend’s car.
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Ahmir was working for his mom that night, and when he walked outside, Hawkins approached him from behind and shot him in the back of his head.
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“I kept looking at him and just imagining how could you’d pick up a gun and kill an innocent boy? My only grandson that my daughter had,” Kuldip Tuli, Ahmir’s grandmother, told Channel 11.
Hawkins refused to take responsibility for the teen’s death. In fact, he told the judge he is an innocent man and hopes to be exonerated one day.
“He has no remorse. You can tell by looking at him. He doesn’t care. There’s some inhumane people in this world, and he’s one of them. He’s gonna be in a cage for the rest of his life, and I’m going to continue to work through everything for the rest of my days,” Preeti said.
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