Mariell McGowan, 29, was fatally shot on Cuyler Avenue in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, on the evening of October 28, 2019. The shooting followed an argument between two groups and involved about a dozen gunshots; two other men were wounded. The location was close to McGowan’s mother’s home.

In October 2021 two Greensburg men, Ronald Trotter and Michael E. Price, were arrested on charges of hindering apprehension, obstruction, and tampering with evidence for allegedly hiding handguns used in the shooting. Price reportedly admitted to throwing one pistol out a window, a witness identified someone matching Trotter’s description hiding another gun under a porch, and gunshot residue was reportedly found on Trotter.

In April 2022 the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office said the shooting was being treated as self-defense under Pennsylvania’s Castle Doctrine, saying the shooter had been warned that McGowan and two other armed men were coming to his home and feared for his family. McGowan’s mother, Taunja Williamson, disputes that account, saying the men were friends, that her son was unarmed and did not enter the shooter’s property, and has urged reopening of the case. Does anyone have information that could clarify what happened that night?