PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police have charged a Wilkinsburg man in the 2013 triple shooting that killed 1-year-old Marcus White Jr.
Gregory Parker, 22, was arrested Saturday morning.
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The child, who became known as Baby Marcus, was killed in a shooting during a picnic at a home in Pittsburgh’s East Hills neighborhood on May 21, 2013. He was 15 months old.
Investigators said the gunfire came from three men who got out of a car and started shooting at the crowd. Detectives said they do not believe the victims were the intended targets.
[ Community gathering around family of 1-year-old killed in East Hills ]
Baby Marcus’s aunt picked him up and used her body to shield him from the gunfire, police said. A bullet hit her in the back and moved through her before hitting the child in the chest, killing him. Two adults survived the shooting.
Witnesses told investigators that a group of people got out of a black vehicle across from where the picnic was and began shooting into the crowd. Detectives recovered 30 bullet casings from three different guns at the scene.
It wasn’t until five years later, in 2018, that detectives received more information about what led to the shooting. Officers were interviewing a witness for the “Candlelight Vigil Shooting” in Homewood that happened in 2015 when he provided Gregory Parker’s name.
According to the criminal complaint, that witness said Parker told him that the shooting stemmed from people in that neighborhood “starting trouble” with them. Another witness said a shootout between the two groups happened days before the deadly shooting.
The witness told police Parker and a few other people drove up to the party in 2013 and shot into the crowd from a distance. However, authorities said the actual projectile that killed Baby Marcus was never found, and the caliber that fired it couldn’t be determined.
Another witness later told detectives he saw Parker and two others armed with guns before entering a stolen SUV that day. Minutes later, according to police documents, shots rang out and the men returned in that car.
Information provided by those witnesses led to Parker’s arrest.
A source close to the investigation tells Channel 11 that Parker was a witness in the Wilkinsburg mass shooting trial. He was known as Witness No. 3.
The family of Baby Marcus said that witness confessed to the murder in 2018, but they didn’t find out until 2020 after a hearing for the Wilkinsburg case.
"We're very pleased that an arrest has been made. It's a good start to getting justice for Baby Marcus," family attorney Paul Jubas said.
Baby Marcus’s family spent the past seven years without answers.
"This is the family of Baby Marcus. They have been asking for answers ever since. They have been pushing for answers," Jubas said.
The two adults that survived the shooting continued to fight for justice.
"We know the individual who has been arrested confessed years ago," Jubas said. "The confession was covered up by the district attorney."
The family plans to file a lawsuit on Monday against District Attorney Stephen Zappala and the city of Pittsburgh.
Channel 11 reached out to the district attorney’s spokesperson Mike Manko, who issued the following statement:
“In the past few days, City of Pittsburgh homicide detectives communicated to us that they had received additional information concerning the death of Marcus White Jr. Based on this additional information, our office approved the filing of numerous charges, including a charge of homicide, against Gregory Parker.”
Parker is charged with criminal homicide, criminal conspiracy, four counts of aggravated assault and gun charges. He’s in the Allegheny County Jail.
Police tell Channel 11 that this is an active investigation and anyone with information is asked to call Pittsburgh police.
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