Three men have been ordered to trial after they were caught in the middle of a home invasion robbery that devolved into a gun battle with police and an East Hills woman was killed.

The woman, Arika Hainesworth, 24, was shot dead as she fled her East Hills apartment. Investigators said the fatal bullet came from a semiautomatic pistol that had been fired repeatedly from a second-floor window at police who had interrupted the robbery.

District Judge David Martin on Friday ordered the trial for the three suspected intruders: Tyree Gaines, 19, and Amir Ferguson, 18, both of Wilkinsburg, and Richard Woodward III, 19, of East Hills.

Each is being held without bail on 23 counts, including homicide, assault of law enforcement officers, robbery, conspiracy, reckless endangerment, aggravated assault, attempted homicide, robbery and burglary.

A witness testified at the hearing that she was with Ms. Hainesworth when they arrived at the East Hills apartment in the 2300 block of East Hill Drive with Ms. Hainesworth's children and another friend around 12:45 a.m. July 11.

Mr. Woodward, under police interrogation after his capture that morning, said he and the other two had discussed robbing Ms. Hainesworth of money and/or drugs, according to testimony Friday by Detective Edward Dent.

There was a knock at the Hainesworths' door about an hour or so after they got home. The women saw through the peephole three masked men. They didn't open the door and the men went away.

The suspects returned about an hour later to kick down the door. The women and children fled to an upstairs bedroom while Ms. Hainesworth's son and a house guest hid in a storage closet, all of them listening to the intruders ransacking the apartment.

Police, by then, already were on the way, because Ms. Hainesworth called 911 before two of the intruders barged into the bedroom. The witness said Ms. Hainesworth gave up some money, but the gunmen demanded more, putting pistols to the women's heads for emphasis.

Downstairs, one of the intruders, the lookout, yelled that police were coming. Officer Steven Sywyj was first to confront the lookout who dropped his assault rifle and fled inside the apartment.

Mr. Woodward had said under questioning later that he was the lookout who fled upstairs and witnesses saw jump from a second-floor window. He was shot and wounded by officers who had arrived with Officer Sywyj. Mr. Woodward was captured by other officers less than two blocks from the scene.

After the jump, one of the suspects began firing from another second-floor window, aiming at the officers -- Heather Copenhaver, Nick Papa, and Sgt. Stephen Vinansky. Officer Sywyj, who had taken a position just inside the apartment, returned fire through the ceiling, and the suspect's gun went silent.

"It was like little Fallujah. It was a gunfight. It was insane," Officer Sywyj testified. He suffered minor scrapes from flying glass, but none of the other officers was injured.

Nor were the other occupants of the apartment. Ms. Hainesworth had stashed her child under a bed when the gunmen forced her downstairs, at just about the time police arrived.

The scene then unfolded into chaos, Officer Sywyj said. In those moments, Ms. Hainesworth appeared to have been outside the apartment as the gunman upstairs was firing from the window.

Deputy District Attorney Mark Tranquilli said an autopsy showed the fatal bullet entered Ms. Hainesworth's chest at a downward projection. The slug recovered matches one of two 9 mm pistols recovered from the scene.

One of the guns had been discarded by Ms. Hainesworth's house guest when police arrived, the previous witness testified.

A .357-Magnum revolver also was found near where Mr. Woodward was caught.

Mr. Tranquilli said evidence shows the fatal shot came from a suspect's gun.

Detective Margaret Sherwood testified that, during a later search of the crime scene, police found inside Ms. Hainesworth's purse 48 bricks of heroin. They found another brick hidden in a sock in a kitchen drawer.

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