A nationwide search is underway for the woman wanted in the first homicide of the year in Erie.

Using surveillance video as well as witness testimony, police publicly identified the suspect last week as 27-year-old Shakeyah Barnes.

According to the Erie Police criminal complaint, the suspect fled the scene in a borrowed black Chevy truck.  The vehicle was returned to its owner, but the suspect remains at large.

Erie News Now asked Deputy Chief Rick Lorah, who leads the criminal investigation division if it was surprising to learn that the suspect in this violent gun crime that claimed the life of one person and injured another?

While he said it was someone surprising, records going back to 2010 indicate a couple dozen women have been charged in connection with homicides in the city, even if they weren't always the primary suspect.  "They may have assisted in a homicide, were with an individual, some of them committed the homicide themselves, since 2010 around 24 females were arrested," the deputy chief said.

Jerry Clark, the former FBI Special Agent who chairs the Criminal Justice Department at Gannon University said his national research shows that same trend. "You're seeing a huge spike just in the last several years of the violent actions now being done by females that you haven't seen in the past. You know, it was always a male-dominated incident and now females are actually making strides in a very bad way," Clark added.

A new national Council on Criminal Justice released a report in the summer of 2024, spelling out similar statistics, blaming higher arrest rates for women on a jump in both violent crimes and drug related crimes.  The report on criminal justice gaps between women and men narrowing on violence cited a 41% rise in female arrest rates for violent crimes from 1980 to 2019. 

Shakeyah Barnes, now wanted by police for firing three shots outside a private New Year's Eve party in a garage type building at 956 West 19th Street may become part of the current statistics on female crime trends.  She faces a long list of criminal charges including homicide, attempted homicide, possessing a firearm without a license

As they exited the party, one shot hit Jalea Turner, 20 in the head, killing her.  Another hit Kyteem Pulliam in the leg, he was transported to the hospital by others at the event.

Police say the shots came after an argument inside the party, and that they have plenty of surveillance video of what went down outside.  They hope the suspect turns herself in.