Antoinette LaToya Toi Porterfield, 45, was shot to death at her Homestead, Pennsylvania, home on August 13, 2024. A friend at the residence, 54-year-old John West, was also found with fatal gunshot wounds. Witnesses reported hearing multiple shots and said Porterfield’s son, 25-year-old John Malcolm Smith V, had a history of domestic violence and had threatened his mother. Porterfield had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Smith, which he violated days before the killings, and an active arrest warrant for those violations was in place at the time of the shootings. Surveillance footage reportedly placed someone matching Smith’s description near the scene and, after a be-on-the-lookout notice, Smith turned himself in to Pittsburgh police on August 14 and was charged with two counts of criminal homicide and tampering with evidence; he was awaiting arraignment.

Porterfield was born March 14, 1979, and was remembered by family and neighbors for her love of music, especially Tupac Shakur, and for caring for others in the community, including feeding neighborhood children and tending to the elderly. What details about the timeline or motive haven’t been released that might help explain how this escalated to fatal violence?