Mar 18, 2015 3 min read

PITTSBURGH – A 17-year-old charged with shooting three people at a crowded mall in suburban Pittsburgh was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on attempted homicide, aggravated assault and other charges.

An Allegheny County detective and Mary Singleton, 47, of Murrysville – one of two bystanders wounded at the Macy’s in Monroeville Mall that night – were the only two witnesses to testify at the 45-minute preliminary hearing Wednesday for Tarod Thornhill.

Singleton identified the Penn Hills teen as the person she saw open fire about 7:30 p.m. as she, her husband, Thomas, 48, and their 13-year-old son were walking toward the store’s exit.

Singleton testified she thought she heard someone say, “That n-word don’t care” as her family walked past Thornhill and some other young men.

“There were words that I remember and then there was the gun and then, pop, pop, and then, pop, pop, pop,” she testified tearfully, recalling the five shots she heard.

Mall surveillance video played by Allegheny County prosecutors shows the person she identified as Thornhill shooting from behind the family at a man who Detective Venerando Costa identified as Davon Jones, 20, who officials have said was Thornhill’s target.

Singleton was wounded in her left arm, which remained in a sling, and her husband was wounded when another bullet severed the femoral artery in his leg. He’s since been released from a hospital, but it still in an inpatient physical rehabilitation center, she testified.

Singleton declined to comment as she left the courtroom.

Detective Costa testified Jones was wounded in the leg, left buttock and his pelvic area. Jones has lost half of his intestines, has nerve damage and has a fractured pelvis, Costa said.

Defense attorney Christopher Urbano declined to comment after the hearing, but appeared to be laying the groundwork for a self-defense claim at trial with questions he asked the witnesses.

Costa indicated that police have been unable to locate others pictured in the video, or to find the weapon, which investigators believe was a .45-caliber pistol based on shell casings found at the scene and Singleton’s description of it.

Urbano’s questions suggested he believes someone else gave his client the gun after Thornhill and Jones had an “encounter” or “altercation” at the mall earlier that evening.

Urbano tried to ask the detective whether he was “aware of any threats” that Jones made toward Thornhill during an earlier encounter at the mall. The judge disallowed the question because it went beyond the scope of Costa’s testimony.

Pittsburgh District Judge Anthony Ceoffe ordered Thornhill to stand trial on one count of attempted homicide, for the Jones shooting, and three counts of aggravated assault, one for each of those wounded. He’s also charged with reckless endangerment, carrying an unlicensed firearm and carrying a firearm as a minor.

The mall, about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh, has since instituted a policy banning minors from most areas of the mall on Fridays and Saturdays after 6 p.m. unless they’re accompanied by a parent or guardian. The Monroeville police have also reopened a substation in the mall which had been closed for several years.