Police are still investigating why a Scranton man who walked into a city hospital with a bullet wound Thursday shot and killed another man during a Monroe County gunfight.
“We’re still working on that,” Pocono Mountain Regional Police Chief Chris Wagner said Monday.
The department charged Yasim McDonald, 27, with criminal homicide and tampering with or fabricating evidence in the shooting death of Layzon Breland, 26, in Tobyhanna Twp.
Wagner said the two men knew each other, but police don’t yet know how well. Eyewitnesses did not know McDonald, he said.
Police linked McDonald’s DNA to blood outside the shooting scene. Breland suffered several gunshot wounds including one to the head, according to an arrest affidavit. He died at the scene, despite attempts to resuscitate him.
Victim's mom reported shooting
Breland’s mother called police to the home at 123 Chelsea Circle at 7:52 p.m. and said the shooter fled in a white car.
Breland and McDonald argued and physically fought in the front.
Police interviewed Breland’s mother and three other eyewitnesses who were around for the shooting. They said Breland tried to flee into the home.
“As they were in the front foyer area to the residence, the occupants were briefly able to force (McDonald) out of the house until he forced the front door completely open,” police officers Zachary Scheetz and Donald Scarfo wrote in the arrest affidavit. “As he was doing this, (McDonald) was observed to be holding a handgun.”
Breland ran upstairs and McDonald chased him.
Witnesses said Breland reached his bedroom, where McDonald fired. Breland found his own gun and fired back, but his wounds were severe enough that he died in the bedroom, according to the affidavit.
McDonald ran out of the bedroom into the hallway, down the stairs and out the front door. As he ran, he left a trail of his own blood, according to the affidavit.
Moments later, a security camera recorded a white four-door sedan coming from the direction where Breland ran. The car drove past the home.
McDonald found in Scranton
About 8:17 p.m., a license plate reader spotted a rented white four-door Kia K5 near Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton, according to the affidavit.
Two minutes later, McDonald walked into GCMC with a gunshot arm wound. Medical staff removed a 9mm bullet from the arm.
“McDonald did appear to be dropped off and did walk in as he was not dropped off right in front of the main entrance doors,” the officers wrote in the affidavit. “When officers arrived a short time later, they attempted to interview McDonald about his injury. He refused to be interviewed.”
The rented Kia
A check with the rental car company found McDonald’s girlfriend rented the car. She arrived at the hospital after the officers did and told them she didn't know where the car was, according to the affidavit.
WVIA News is not naming the girlfriend because she is not charged, but several hours later officers tried to contact her again and found her driving the Kia. She told them she found it near McDonald’s family’s property in Long Pond.
They asked her to drive the car to police headquarters, which she did.
Officers noticed “dried blood droplets” inside in plain view and obtained a search warrant for the car. The blood was on the middle console and passenger side. Police also found all-purpose cleaner in the car, which "appeared to have been cleaned recently,” according to the affidavit.
The DNA connection
Police obtained warrants to search the Chelsea Circle home and to collect a sample of McDonald’s DNA. A test connected his DNA to the blood trail outside the home, according to the affidavit.
Wagner said other people may be charged for behavior after the shooting.
McDonald’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 30. He is detained without bail in the county prison.
