On the morning of August 8, 2022, 16-year-old Alexander Kowalyk was shot in the head while seated in the passenger seat of his mother’s car on Van Braam Street in Pittsburgh’s Uptown neighborhood. Friends had paused to greet an acquaintance at about 2:45 a.m. when a single gunshot struck Alex; he was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition and died at about 4:15 p.m. the same day. His mother, Vanessa Kowalyk, described the incident as a drive-by shooting, saying the bullet passed through the back of her vehicle before striking her son.

The family had just moved that day from McKeesport to Shadyside. Vanessa remembered Alex as a good kid who cared for his younger sister and was not involved in drugs. Detectives from the violent crimes unit cordoned off the scene and opened a homicide investigation, but no arrests have been announced and the case remains active. If anyone has information about the shooting or the people seen on Van Braam Street that night, please come forward.