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Police say 2 killings in Lincoln-Lemington may be linked
Sunday, July 08, 2001 By Bill Heltzel, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Two killings that occurred less than five hours and five blocks apart Friday night in Lincoln-Lemington are connected, but exactly how they relate Pittsburgh police are not sure.
The two dead men knew one another and once may have been close friends, police said. One man was rumored to have set up the other, and he went to his friend's family to disavow involvement in that killing.
Four other people were injured during the gunplay in and around Paulson Playground, in the northeast section of the city.
The first shooting happened at 7:17 p.m.
Eric Lineburg, 25, was seen talking with someone in the 1300 block of Paulson Avenue, a half block away from the playground. An adult basketball league game was under way, and Lineburg may have been at the game earlier in the evening, Cmdr. Maurita Bryant said.
Lineburg and the other man got into an altercation, she said. Some people said Lineburg had a gun -- though no gun was found on his body -- and others said the other man had a gun.
Shots were fired. Lineburg ran toward Olivant Street, cut down a short alley that skirts the basketball court, and ran onto a baseball field. Two men standing by the courts also shot at him.
Police found three or four shell casings on Paulson where the altercation began and 20 casings at the playground. Lineburg was hit by multiple gunshots, police said. The coroner's office said the cause of death was a gunshot wound of the back.
A 15-year-old boy who was watching the basketball game, and who police would not identify, was shot three times in the back as he tried to escape the barrage of gunfire. He was in serious condition early Saturday at UPMC Presbyterian.
Later that night, a rumor circulated that Wallace Goldston, 26, a friend of Lineburg's, had set up the killing. Goldston went to the Lineburg family home on Paulson Avenue to, according to various stories, pay his respects or deny involvement.
When Goldston left to return home, he was a passenger in a car driven by his mother, Penny Goldston, 58. His girlfriend, Daynell Snead, 20, and his 6-month-old daughter were in the back seat.
Mrs. Goldston drove up Roane Way to the back of her house in the 1200 block of Album Street. A car with two or three occupants pulled up alongside, and shots were fired into her car.
Mrs. Goldston followed the car to the 1300 block of Paulson Avenue, where the Lineburg altercation had begun, and flagged down a police officer.
Wallace Goldston was pronounced dead at the scene. He died of multiple gunshot wounds to his torso, according to the coroner's office.
Daynell Snead was shot in an arm. Penny Goldston was treated for chest pains.
Police were familiar with Lineburg. In March 1994, Ahmad Witherspoon, 22, of Larimer, was killed, and Lineburg was charged. Police said at the time that the killing was part of a gang feud. Witherspoon was a member of the Larimer Avenue/Wilkinsburg gang, which was battling the Lincoln-Lemington Crips.
But homicide charges were dropped against Lineburg, then 18 years old, and Ronnell Keith Pittman, 19, of East Hills, after one witness changed his story and others refused to testify.
Yesterday, Bryant said it was unclear if gang affiliations or territory had anything to do with the killings.
"People who grew up together belong to crews," she said. "The Lincoln-Lemington crew does not identify itself as 'Crips' or 'Bloods.' ... It's their turf, and their allegiances are to whoever they grew up with."
She said detectives were hampered by a lack of cooperation. Forty to 50 people were at the playground during the Lineburg shooting, but police were finding it difficult to locate participants and spectators in the league game.
Descriptions of the gunmen were vague. In the Lineburg shooting, all three gunmen were described as black males with dark complexions. The man Lineburg was seen talking with was wearing blue, black and white camouflage pants, a black T-shirt, and fishing hat.
One of the two men at the playground was described as 5 feet 9 inches tall, medium build, wearing baggy dark jeans and a dingy gray T-shirt; and the other as 5 feet 8 inches tall, stocky build, wearing a gray bandanna.
Police had no descriptions of the two or three men involved in the Goldston shooting. They were in a blue, 1993 or 1994 Buick or Chevrolet.
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