PITTSBURGH — Two men were arrested after replica guns and nearly $14,000 in counterfeit cash were found in a car after numerous reports of shots fired Wednesday in Pittsburgh’s Fineview neighborhood, police said.
Officers were keeping an eye out for the car after receiving five separate ShotSpotter alerts, which indicated that about 25 rounds were fired within about five minutes just before 6 p.m., according to a criminal complaint. Four of the alerts came from Russel Avenue and the fifth came from two blocks away.
A woman told police she saw a white car parked in front of a garage on Russel Avenue, a dead-end street, and believed she heard gunshots coming from it before it drove away. Investigators found 10 shell casings, identified as 9mm blank rounds, on the street, police said.
While officers were on Russel Avenue, they heard the shots that set off the fifth ShotSpotter alert in the area of Perrysville Avenue. Witnesses said they also saw a white car and that shots were being fired out of the window.
A few minutes later, officers found a white car parked on Letsche Street with two men inside. As the officers went to talk with the men -- 18-year-old Marcus Burgess and 26-year-old Branden Washington -- they saw a gun and spent shell casings that matched those collected after the ShotSpotter alerts, the complaint stated.
Washington told officers the gun they saw was a prop gun, authorities said. He then consented to a search of his vehicle, adding that no guns in the car were real.
In all, four replica guns with loaded magazines were found in the car, the complaint detailed. Each of them had orange barrel tips that had been painted black.
In addition to the replica guns, a can of black spray paint, marijuana, a digital scale and $13,870 in counterfeit money were found, police said.
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