PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates has learned from multiple law enforcement sources that teens between the ages of 13 and 15 that were allegedly involved in a gun store burglary in Bethel Park earlier this month have been linked to a second gun store burglary in Ohio this past weekend.
Expert Outfitters in North Lima, Ohio was broken into on Sunday morning just before 7 a.m.
The owner told 11 Investigates that the alert came in at 6:45 a.m. He said it was all captured on surveillance video.
He said the three suspects were wearing masks and carrying backpacks.
They pried open the bars on the front door and then shot the glass to gain access to the store.
Once inside, they fired shots into the cases and cleaned out the guns.
They got 23 firearms.
The owner said they were in and out in 90 seconds.
But sources said one of the suspects dropped an identification card or a piece of paper with his name or the name of a relative.
The paper led investigators back to a house in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Sheraden that they had raided a week earlier after a similar gun store burglary in Bethel Park.
The suspects shot their way into the store and got away with more than 50 guns.
Police eventually tracked down 11 of the guns at a home in Sheraden.
They also identified four teens between the ages of 13 and 15 as suspects.
A juvenile judge in Allegheny County ordered two of them detained.
Two others were released into the custody of their parents.
Legal analyst Phil DiLucente said that’s not uncommon in juvenile court.
“There’s a lot of things that are taken into consideration. Are they going to be on house arrest? Are they going to have parental controls? so this is part of the process,” said DiLucente.
11 Investigates reached out to juvenile court but it’s unclear if the two were placed on house arrest or just turned over to their parents.
Sources said police are now investigating if one of the teens released after the Bethel Park burglary may have also been involved in the Ohio gun shop break in a week later.
Later that same day, Investigators returned to that same house in Sheraden and found four guns from the Ohio gun store burglary.
But, according to sources, more than 50 guns are still missing.
“I think it’s shocking, it’s disturbing, and I think it’s extremely concerning to the community,” said Pittsburgh city councilmember Theresa Kail Smith, who lives in the West End.
To make matters worse, just last week, social media posts showed a group of teens walking around Sheraden, waving what appeared to be firearms.
After calls to police, Investigators tracked down the teens and determined that they were toy guns.
But the guns taken from stores that past two weeks are not fake.
And Kail Smith said it’s time for action.
“One household is terrorizing that whole area, at least one household, but there’s just a few households that are cause a lot of problems for the community and I think it’s more than time and beyond time that we have some type of response that’s stronger for the community,” said Kail Smith.
Sources also told 11 Investigates that police identified 13 teens at that house in Sheraden, and in addition to the gun store burglaries, they suspect some of those same teens may have been involved in a rash of car thefts in the west end.
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