Search continues for Bolden following weekend homicide
Jul. 7—Authorities continue to search for a man who faces charges related to a Walnut Street homicide that took place early Saturday.
Meadville Police Department has issued an arrest warrant for Meadville resident Timothy T. Bolden, 25, on charges of robbery and criminal trespass in connection with the homicide. Bolden has not been charged with homicide or any similar crimes.
"Bolden has not been located," a statement issued Tuesday by city police stated.
Police responded to a report of shots fired at 376 1/2 Walnut St. at approximately 3:10 a.m. Saturday. Upon arriving, they found that Nathaniel E. Harris, 19, had been shot and was dead, according to the statement issued by police Tuesday. Harris was a resident of the second-floor apartment, one of three apartments in the house located about a block from Diamond Park and the Crawford County Judicial Center.
Following the completion of an autopsy on Monday, Crawford County Coroner Scott Schell said Harris had "multiple gunshot wounds" to the body and that he was declared dead at the scene.
After completion of the autopsy, Harris' remains were released to Charles O. Dimond Funeral Home, Inc., 621 Maple St., South Fork. An obituary for Harris published Sunday in the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat listed receiving hours for 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home. A funeral mass will be celebrated Friday at 10 a.m. at St. Michael Catholic Church, 180 Gilbert St., Johnstown.
First Assistant District Attorney Paula DiGiacomo on Monday said police are investigating more than one individual in relation to the case.
On Tuesday, Assistant Chief Michael Stefanucci called the killing of Harris "the first homicide of this nature in quite a while" in the city. According to Stefanucci, two homicides have occurred inside the city over the past decade, though neither incident resulted in a search for the killers involved.
Stefanucci said the last homicide inside the city occurred in January 2017 when Twuan Hamilton, 30, of Meadville, fatally shot Sarah Ann Schaaf, 28, with a .22-caliber handgun and then turned the gun on himself, taking his own life, inside a Brawley Avenue home.
The previous city homicide was also part of a murder-suicide: In September 2011, Michael D. Trout, 26, of Meadville shot Nobilee R. Forro, 31, once in the head, killing her, then turned the weapon on himself.
If homicides have been rare occurrences in the city in recent years, the presence and use of firearms has grown alarmingly common, according to Stefanucci, particularly over the past year.
"Unfortunately, we've been getting a lot of 'shots fired' reports," he said. The number of such reports that have been confirmed by police has "definitely been on the rise over the past year," he added.
Stefanucci cited recent examples, such as a June 29 incident in which officers responding to a nearby call heard three shots fired in the vicinity of Liberty and Walnut streets at about 1:30 a.m.
A vehicle and a residence were struck by two of the shots fired at around 2:25 a.m. in a March 27 incident near the intersection of Liberty and Pine streets. Officers found multiple shell casings at the scene but there were no known injuries, nor did police immediately find anyone responsible for the gunfire.
Stefanucci estimated that officers responding to crimes in recent months were seizing 10 times the number of guns compared to five years ago.
Chief Michael Tautin made a similar point in an interview in November, when he said that eight guns had been seized over the course of the previous four months or so.
"We'd get several a year in the past," Tautin said at the time, "but eight in the last few months is an alarming trend." The increase in the presence of guns paralleled an increase in illegal drug activity, he added.
Prior to the homicide Saturday, the increase in the presence of illegal guns on city streets had not been accompanied by any apparent increase in gun violence in the city, according to Stefanucci.
Despite rumors of people being shot, he said, "We haven't had anybody we've known that has been struck in the past year."
It was possible, Stefanucci added, that gunshot victims could have traveled outside the county for treatment of their wounds and that city police were not notified as a result. State law requires hospitals to notify local or state police of gunshot victims, he noted, but if the victim of a gunshot in Meadville were treated in Pittsburgh, it's possible city police might not be notified.
Meadville police are continuing their investigation into the Saturday homicide on Walnut Street with assistance from Pennsylvania State Police and the Crawford County District Attorney's Office. Anyone with information relevant to the investigation should contact police at (814) 724-6100.
Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at mcrowley@meadvilletribune.com.
