PITTSBURGH — A shooting left a man dead after his night out in Lawrenceville and it is the third in recent months.
“Wrong place, wrong time, and Neill didn’t deserve to be at that wrong place at all,” Joey Janicky told Channel 11.
Janicky found out about the murder of one of his best friends, Neil Yackovich, when he woke up to dozens of text messages and calls two weekends ago.
“Neill was such a great guy. Even people who weren’t close friends with him would say he was a good person. He had a good, giant heart,” he said.
Yackovich was shot and killed when police say a stranger, Nykia Edwards, fired at him outside of an AirBnB party on Butler Street.
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Edwards was outside with her girlfriend when she claims Yackovich started running toward her, and she thought he may have had a knife.
“Neill just left the bar and was casually walking back to his truck to go home. I don’t think Neill was running at anyone; he was probably trying to run away from her,” Janicky added.
According to police, the suspect told investigators she is paranoid that people are trying to kill her, so she fired a gun at Yackovich.
When detectives interviewed her, they say she told them she got rid of the gun before getting on a bus to the South Side, then allegedly admitted she shouldn’t have shot the victim.
“I do have anger, but that’s not going to do me any good. I’ll just pray for her,” Janicky said.
Janicky told Channel 11 that he wishes he could go back to that night.
“One of us should have been with him. Not saying it could have been prevented, but I feel bad none of us were with him that night,” he added.
Edwards has a hearing scheduled for May 8.
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