Authorities have arrested the suspect in the Jan. 20 shooting death of Hosea Davis, the man hailed as a hero last year when he helped subdue a man who stabbed a teen at Target in East Liberty.
On Sept. 18, according to a release from the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department, members of the Greater Pittsburgh Fugitive Task Force, with assistance from the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, arrested 30-year-old Rodney Howard Jr. in Baldwin.
Howard is accused of shooting Davis, 37, of Penn Hills, more than 10 times at close range, on Rapidan Way in Lincoln-Lemington.
Howard was identified with the help of witnesses and an arrest warrant was issued a week later. He is charged with criminal homicide after having been on the run for almost eight months.
Howard is currently at Allegheny County Jail.
Davis was credited with saving Allison Meadows when a homeless man stabbed her and three other people at a Target store in the city’s East Liberty section on March 25.
Witnesses said Davis stopped Leon Walls, 42, when he attacked Meadows and other shoppers that day.
A witness said Davis jumped into the fray after Meadows fell down, her lung collapsed, after she was stabbed in the back.
“He was like Superman,” witness Michael Turner told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at the time. “All I’ve seen is this little guy flying in the air.”
Davis told KDKA-TV at the time that he feared for his safety, but intervened anyway because Meadows, who has since recovered, “was defenseless on the ground.”
“I picked up a bat and started beating him in the legs with it and he fell to the ground,” Davis said of the stabbing suspect.
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