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Haler Heights neighbors offer to work together after May 26 incident
By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
June 06, 2024
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
The owner of a Marshall Drive home where two people were shot during a backyard pool party has apologized to neighbors and said he wants to avoid a repeat of the incident.
Jake Howell said the May 26 incident — where two guests exchanged gunfire following an argument — was a family cookout that “turned tragic.” Howell, an electrical engineer who has lived in McKeesport for three years, called the events “painful.”
“I’ve never had anything like that happen before and it’s scary,” Howell said Wednesday following a city council meeting attended by a large group of other Haler Heights residents.
The incident happened around a backyard swimming pool at Howell’s home near Renziehausen Park.
Allegheny County police allege that Vance Lee Sykes, 30, of New Castle threw a 13-year-old girl into the pool. When he was confronted by other guests, police said, Sykes is accused of retrieving a handgun from a car and shooting another person.
Another unidentified party guest then returned fire, wounding Sykes, police said.
Sykes is currently in the Allegheny County Jail pending a June 17 preliminary hearing.
The events roiled a usually quiet neighborhood bounded by woods, Renzie Park and the Serra Catholic High School campus.
Joanne Welch, a Marshall Drive resident who manages a Haler Heights Facebook page, told city council that the usually polite discussions in the social media group had turned ugly in the wake of the May 26 shooting.
She noted that Howell had publicly apologized in the Facebook group and that neighbors were looking forward to resolving their differences peacefully. Howell also stayed after the city council meeting to talk with neighbors one-on-one.
“We’re still open to a meeting among residents,” Welch said. “Not a shouting match, but to heal the neighborhood. Especially for those who were close to the event, to restore a sense of peace to Haler Heights.”
However, Welch said, residents had legitimate concerns related to large house parties that generate noise, parking issues and traffic problems.
She asked whether the city had any ordinances regulating events at private residences. Welch said that rumors had circulated of a previous party at Howell’s home that had as many as 200 people in attendance.
“How many people can a person have at their home for a party?” Welch said. “What ordinances are in place now that these parties have occurred and what will prevent them from recurring again?”
City Administrator Tom Maglicco and City Solicitor J. Jason Elash said officials are reviewing McKeesport’s existing ordinances for “disorderly properties,” which they said have not been updated since the 1960s. A revised ordinance is expected to be reviewed at the July council meeting, they said.
Howell said he does not want to be known as the owner of “the party house.”
“I’m not coming to the neighborhood to mess it up,” he said Wednesday night. “I’m not that guy ... When you say you live in McKeesport, people assume there’s a negative connotation. I hate the fact that this event turned tragic.”
Howell said he had just finished cooking and had gone into the house to clean up when he heard what he thought were firecrackers.
“It’s a very heavy stain for me right now,” he said. “I think about it every time I look at my backyard, or when I hear a story of what people were doing at that time, I realize how much everybody was affected.”
Haler Heights residents also expressed concern about another home on Marshall Drive, near Route 48, where public nudity and sexual activity have been reported.
Police Chief Mark Steele said that particular home has been the location of at least 18 arrests and citations.
“We are dealing with it. We are trying to clean it up,” Steele told council and residents. “I’m sick of driving up and down the street and seeing it. They are getting hit with ordinance violations — we are trying to do our best.”
Jason Togyer is editor of Tube City Almanac and volunteer executive director of Tube City Community Media Inc.
Originally published June 06, 2024.
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