PITTSBURGH — Police have made an arrest in the shooting death of a man on the back porch of a home in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood, and the suspect is a longtime friend of the victim.
Kenneth Murphy, 18, is charged with homicide in connection with the death of 20-year-old Christopher Rodriguez.
Murphy and Rodriguez had been friends for several years.
According to court papers obtained by Channel 11 News, Murphy told police he went to Rodriguez’s house on Arlington Avenue late Monday to buy a gun.
Murphy cried as he told officers that he was playing with a gun that he believed to be unloaded when it went off, police said.
Police say Murphy told them he kept pulling the trigger thinking the other chambers were empty, but they were actually loaded.
Rodriguez was shot four times.
Murphy ran off and later confessed to his girlfriend, police said.
A witness helped lead police to Murphy.
A friend of Rodriguez told Channel 11 News that he was going to be a father.
"I talked to him Sunday like, 'Hey are you ready for that baby,' and his eyes lit up," the woman said. She did not want to be identified, but she told Channel 11 News that she does not believe that Rodriguez was selling guns.
"There's no way that type of activity is going on."