Derrick Harris Jr. was preparing for his 16th birthday when he was killed outside Oliver Citywide Academy in May 2023.
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Derrick Harris Jr. had been texting his mother about his approaching 16th birthday before leaving for school on May 24, 2023. He never came home. More than three years later, the classmate who killed him has been sentenced to 35 years to life in prison.
Jaymier Perry, now 18, received the sentence after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in Harris’ death. Both boys were 15 when the shooting occurred outside Oliver Citywide Academy on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The plea and sentence resolved a prosecution that had remained open for years while the court dealt with questions about Perry’s competency. For Harris’ family, the legal outcome came long after they had already confronted the immediate loss of a teenager whom relatives described not simply as a crime victim but as a son and brother who enjoyed sports, video games and making other people laugh.
Harris’ mother, Erin Krall, spoke publicly the day after the shooting and described how ordinary the morning had seemed before police converged on the school. She said she and Harris had been exchanging messages about things he wanted for his birthday, which was days away. Later, after learning that he had been shot, the family was forced to turn from birthday plans to funeral arrangements. Krall told local television that she had sent her son to school to get an education and he did not return. Her account became one of the clearest public reminders of the person behind a case later dominated by court hearings, police evidence and questions about punishment.
A fundraising page created for the family described Harris as a kindhearted and loving son and brother. It said he enjoyed video games and sports with friends and was remembered for his smile and sense of humor. The family’s description stood apart from the clinical language in police reports, where Harris appeared as a critically wounded student found outside the school entrance. That contrast persisted throughout the case: relatives spoke about a teenager with plans and relationships, while prosecutors spent years establishing the legal record of how he was killed and why the person responsible should be convicted of first-degree murder.
The shooting occurred at about 7:25 a.m., before most students had arrived at Oliver Citywide Academy. Pittsburgh police said a gunfire-detection system registered 11 shots near the Brighton Road school. Officers found Harris suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and gave him emergency aid before he was transported to a hospital. He died there. Police said an officer then saw Perry running from the scene carrying a firearm. Officers detained him and recovered a 9 mm handgun investigators identified as belonging to Perry’s mother. The speed of that arrest meant Harris’ family did not have to wait for police to identify a suspect, though the court case itself would take far longer.
Investigators said surveillance footage helped establish what happened on the school steps. Prosecutors later said Perry approached Harris and fired until the handgun was empty, striking Harris 10 times. The video also showed Perry assaulting Harris after he had fallen, according to police and the prosecution. Perry told detectives that Harris had taken his Beats headphones two days earlier and said he knew the two boys were often among the first students to reach the school. Authorities presented the headphones dispute as the motive Perry himself gave for the attack. No separate motive has been established in the public record reviewed for this report.
The killing reverberated through a school community that was already coping with serious incidents of violence and safety concerns. Oliver Citywide Academy served students with special education needs. On the morning Harris was killed, students who had not yet arrived were diverted, while classes were canceled and the district moved to remote learning. Officials made counselors available to students and staff. In the months that followed, the district stopped operating the school in its previous form and dispersed students to other locations. The consequences of one student’s killing therefore extended from Harris’ family to classmates, teachers and families whose daily routines were changed by the closure.
Public discussion after the shooting reflected broader concern about what students and staff had experienced at Oliver. Another student had previously been fatally shot in connection with the school, and officials had confronted other serious incidents involving students and staff. The May 2023 killing intensified questions about whether the building could continue operating as it had. For the Harris family, however, those institutional debates followed a simpler fact: Derrick had gone to school and was killed before the academic day began. The relocation of students could address where classes would be held, but it could not restore what the family lost.
The prosecution also faced an unusual delay. Perry’s mental competency became an issue after his arrest. His defense attorney said in 2023 that an evaluation was being conducted to determine whether Perry understood the charges and his rights, and a court hearing was postponed. At sentencing, defense reporting indicated Perry had been considered incompetent to stand trial for a prolonged period before later making progress. The defense also described significant developmental delays in his childhood, including that he was nonverbal until about age 4, and said he experienced the death of a young sister. Those circumstances were presented as part of Perry’s background, not as a denial that he killed Harris.
By June 2026, the competency issue had advanced enough for Perry to resolve the case. He appeared in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Two firearms charges were withdrawn, according to online court records reported by local media. The negotiated plea called for 35 years to life. Because Perry was a juvenile when the murder occurred, the sentencing framework differed from the mandatory life-without-parole punishment that can apply to an adult convicted of first-degree murder. His youth did not move the case into juvenile court or erase the murder conviction, but it affected how a life sentence could be structured.
The prosecution’s account of Perry’s statements to detectives remained a prominent part of the case. Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Ryan Kiray said Perry told investigators that after firing at Harris, he continued the assault because, in Perry’s words, someone who shoots another person might as well “finish the job.” Prosecutors said he laughed while talking about the shooting. The remark was disclosed as part of the case against him. At sentencing three years later, however, Perry spoke in markedly different terms, telling Harris’ mother that he knew his actions had hurt her family and saying he accepted responsibility without trying to excuse what he had done.
The apology came only after Perry had formally admitted first-degree murder and agreed to a sentence that will keep him in prison for decades. A 35-years-to-life term means he must serve the minimum before any possibility of parole consideration, and a parole-eligible sentence does not mean release will occur at that point. For Harris’ family, the sentence establishes a legal consequence for the killing but cannot measure the years that began with his absence from home on May 24, 2023, or the birthday that arrived without him days later.
The criminal prosecution is now resolved at the trial-court level, leaving Perry to serve his sentence and Harris’ family to carry a loss that began long before the court reached judgment. Oliver Citywide Academy no longer operates as it did on the morning of the shooting. The students who once attended there have moved on to other buildings and programs. The legal case likewise has moved from accusation to conviction and sentencing. What remains unchanged is the central fact that brought all of those developments about: Harris was 15 years old when he went to school and was killed before the day had begun.
Author note: Last updated September 8, 2026.