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A Beltzhoover teenager was arrested Friday after a witness identified him as the gunman with an assault rifle who shot and killed one Carrick High School student and wounded two others outside the school this week.

Derwin Milligan, 17, of Climax Street, was charged with criminal homicide in the slaying Wednesday of Keith "Spud" Watts Jr., 16, who was shot in the head as he sat in a Geo Tracker at the corner of Santron and Westmont Avenue.

Pittsburgh police Lt. Kevin Kraus said detectives are still searching for "at least one other suspect" in the shooting.

Police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. said the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives brought a gun-tracking dog from Philadelphia to help find the assault rifle, believed to be an AK-47.

McNeilly and police Cmdr. Maurita Bryant said they hope the arrest of Milligan will ease some of the tension in the community and reduce the possibility of retaliatory violence.

Bryant said the shooting, though linked to a feud between youths from the St. Clair Village and Beltzhoover neighborhoods, also was the result of "a personal vendetta" against Watts.

She pointed out that there had been other attempts on the life of Watts, who grew up in St. Clair Village.

Watts escaped injury Feb. 9 when someone began shooting at him as he got off a school van at his grandmother's house on Arabella Street in Knoxville.

Police said last night they don't know if Milligan was involved in that shooting.

Milligan was involved in a cafeteria fight last month at the high school that led to charges of disorderly conduct being filed against Watts, Alfred "A.J." Grimmitt and six others, police said.

Milligan was expelled from school after that fight and placed in Langley High School.

Watts, Grimmitt, 17, of Turtle Creek, and another Carrick student, Raymont Dillard, 17, were sitting in the Geo Tracker at 1:47 p.m. Wednesday after leaving school early.

A teal-colored Hyundai Sonata pulled alongside, and at least eight shots rang out.

Watts was killed instantly. Grimmitt, who was shot in the chest, remained hospitalized in serious condition last night in Mercy Hospital, Uptown. Dillard, who was injured by flying glass, was treated at Mercy Hospital and released.

Grimmitt's father, John, said last night that he is glad an arrest was made, "but I hate that it had to come to this."

Police questioned Milligan on Wednesday night but did not have enough evidence to arrest him.

That changed yesterday when a confidential witness came forward and identified Milligan as the gunman, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by homicide Detectives George A. Satler and Hal Bolin.

According to the affidavit:

The witness saw the Sonata pull up and the front-seat passenger put the gun out the window and open fire. The witness picked Milligan's picture out of a photo array.

Detectives George Trosky and James McGee went to Milligan's home on Climax Street at 4:15 p.m. yesterday and saw him looking out the door at them from a neighboring house.

The Milligan house is located a short distance from the spot where Watts' father, Keith W. "Spud" Watts, was shot and killed as he sat in his car on Dec. 10, 1999. Police have said the elder Watts was a drug dealer who was slain as the result of a drug war.

Bryant said Milligan willingly came to police headquarters with the detectives. "He thought they were going to question him again," she said.

Milligan was arraigned and jailed without bond to await a coroner's hearing scheduled for April 1.

His mother and two of his aunts later came to police headquarters and talked briefly with several homicide detectives before leaving angry and in tears. They did not talk with reporters.

The arrest came after detectives, school police and ATF agents worked around the clock to find those responsible for a shooting that left the community outraged, fearful and concerned.

"This was particularly troubling because it was around a school at the end of the school day," McNeilly said.

Bryant said detectives won't rest until they catch all those responsible and recover the assault rifle.

"I would really like to get that gun off the street," McNeilly said.

Earlier in the day, Allegheny County's top law enforcement officer said he would offer protection to those who come forward with information about the identities of the gunmen who killed Watts.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said anyone who provides leads could be placed in the county's witness protection program.

"Anybody that comes forward with information, we will work to protect you," Zappala said as he stood in front of Carrick High School, just around the corner from where Watts died.

"These are dangerous people," Zappala said. "Some of our neighborhoods are under siege."

Zappala briefly inspected the scene of the killing yesterday morning and later met inside the school with Carrick officials, Pittsburgh Public Schools police Chief Robert Fadzen and Bryant to discuss the shooting.

They focused on finding ways to calm tensions among students.

Bryant later said that she was impressed by security at the school.

"The principal has everything under control. The kids look at the school as a safe haven. The concern is kids going back and forth to school," she said.

Bryant said school police and city officers would continue to have increased patrols in the area until the tensions ease.

Also yesterday, about 20 people picketed in front of the Carrick home of school board member Jean Fink to protest the shooting and the violence.

Amelia Bailey, 53, of Beltzhoover, carried a sign that read, "We Demand Safer Schools."

Fink reminded the protesters that the shooting did not take place in school. "It wasn't on school property. He cut the last period. He was outside. He should have been in the school that time of day.

"It was nothing the school district could have prevented," she insisted. "There's security in every high school. There are metal detectors in every high school. We take every precaution we can as a school district to make the schools safe."

Fink sympathized with the protesters.

"This is a shock because we've never had anything like this happen at Carrick. People expect the school somehow to control that.

"If security is watching the door, then they're not working in the building, watching the kids."

Staff writers Bill Zlatos and Richard Byrne Reilly contributed to this report.

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