Allen Austin was 37 when he was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Comfort Inn on Banksville Road in Pittsburgh in August 2008. Investigators recovered a baseball cap at the scene that proved to be a pivotal piece of evidence.

A break came in December 2010 after a DUI arrest led to DNA being entered into the national database; the DNA matched material from the cap. An eyewitness also identified the same man, Tyrone Swan. At a later non-jury trial a judge convicted Swan of voluntary manslaughter in Austin’s death and of aggravated assault for wounding another man, Robert Finley. The judge noted evidence that the victims had initiated the confrontation and sentenced Swan to five to ten years in prison. He was on parole from that conviction when he later faced unrelated federal drug charges.

Anyone who knew Allen Austin or who was in the Banksville Road area that night and has information is asked to come forward.