Dec 16, 2022 2 min read

A 16-year-old is being charged with the shooting death of another teenager in Monessen last month.

Terry Newton, of Monessen, faces a felony homicide charge and a misdemeanor for possession of a firearm by a minor. According to court records, there is an active warrant for his arrest. He is being charged as an adult.

Westmoreland County detectives accuse Newton of shooting Amari Altomore, 16, on Nov. 29 at Newton’s home in the 600 block of 14th Street. Altomore was transported to Allegheny General Hospital, where he died the next day.

According to the complaint, police responded to the shooting shortly after 8 p.m. Officers found Altomore lying on the porch of a home on Reservoir Street with a gunshot wound.

Court records state that police interviewed Tanieshia Thompson, Newton’s mother, on Dec. 2. She told investigators that her son and Altomore had been playing video games upstairs prior to the shooting.

She reported that she heard the two “playing around and making a great deal of noise,” and then heard a “pop,” according to the complaint.

Newton allegedly came running down the stairs, yelling that Altomore had been hit. Thompson told police that Altomore came down next, and she saw that he had been shot.

According to the complaint, police obtained surveillance footage that shows Newton fleeing from the rear of the home.

Altomore was a junior at Monessen High School and a lineman for the football team. Days after he was killed, Monessen residents held a candlelight vigil for Altomore at Ninth Street Park. Diane Holiday, Altomore’s grandmother, attended the vigil and was touched by the display.

“Thank you, from the bottom of my broken heart, I thank each and every one of them,” she said at the time.

A relative of Altomore’s said the family is not commenting on the charges filed against Newton.

As of the newspaper’s deadline Friday, Newton was not in custody.