Police have arrested a man on the lam for two years since being charged in a 2024 double shooting that killed a North Braddock teen.
Darien Wallace, 20, of Braddock was taken into custody Wednesday night in Trafford, Allegheny County Police said.
Three days after the April 1, 2024, shooting of 16-year-old Jeramyah “J.J.” Pollard, police charged Wallace with homicide, aggravated assault and related charges.
Investigators said they received information Wallace was inside a home in the 500 block of West Inwood Road. The county’s SWAT team was dispatched. Wallace was taken into custody after trying to run away around 6:30 p.m.
Detectives said they found an AR-style pistol, ammunition and multiple magazines nearby.
On Thursday, Wallace was taken to the Allegheny County Jail following arraignment, court records show. A judge denied his bail. His preliminary hearing is June 12.
Wallace’s attorney was not listed Thursday in court records.
‘Go get him, Papi’
On the day of the shooting, Wallace’s sister, Na’Quayla Wallace, posted a photo of herself at a Braddock park on social media. A group — including one witness whose “relative has had past problems with Na’Quayla” — went there to attack her, according to a criminal complaint.
Police said a fight ensued. Officers broke it up.
Na’Quayla Wallace left the park after the fight, according to the complaint, and told her attackers she was getting her brother.
Later, she told the group to come to a house in Braddock, the complaint said. One witness invited Jeramyah, the homicide victim, to come along for what they called a “fight in their ‘hood.”
When the group neared, police said a woman later identified as Na’Quayla’s mother shouted, “Go get him, Papi!”
Darien Wallace, known by the nickname “Papi,” ran out of the home on Moody Street, a gun in his waistband, to chase down the group, the complaint said.
Police said the group ran away. But Darien Wallace found Jeramyah and two others in a nearby side yard on Margaretta Street.
Wallace grabbed one of them by their collar and put a gun against their jaw, the complaint said.
Police said Wallace then “disengaged” and walked up to Jeramyah, who was standing nearby. Wallace grabbed him by the shirt and shot him in the side of the head before running away, according to the complaint.
Prior trouble on Margaretta
Police were dispatched around 7:50 p.m. and found Jeramyah near the Margaretta Street house, the complaint said. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene at 7:57 p.m. He had been shot in the left ear.
Police later discovered a second gunshot victim, who has been struck in the buttocks, the complaint said. First responders took them to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in stable condition.
Jeramyah’s family did not return phone calls Thursday seeking comment.
Lethal violence had broken out before on Margaretta Street, a residential road two blocks off Braddock’s business district.
In August 2023, nine months before Jeramyah was shot, two Woodland Hills students were fatally shot there. Nazir Parker, 17, and Rimel Lamour Williamson, 17, two Braddock teens starting their senior year in high school, were killed. A third person was hurt.
Justin Vellucci and Kellen Stepler are TribLive staff writers. Justin can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com, Kellen at kstepler@triblive.com.