Justin Vellucci stories, Page 13
A year later, families of teens killed in North Park crash remain overcome with grief while fighting to move onVideo
Twice a week, Ellie Tourney eats lunch on a stone bench near her son’s grave. She doesn’t want her youngest boy to feel like he has been forgotten. Nearly a year has passed since Jonathan Tourney and Taylor Orlowski were killed on Christmas weekend when the speeding SUV they were...
Braddock man, 52, found fatally shot inside vehicle
A Braddock man was killed early Friday and the suspect who shot him remains at large, authorities says. State police found Henry Freeman, 52, dead inside his vehicle on the 400 block of Library Street in Braddock about 1:45 a.m., state police said. He had been shot several times. Freeman...
Teen accidentally shoots brother in Port Vue home, police say
A teenager late Thursday accidentally shot his younger brother in the leg while showing off a gun to friends in their Port Vue home, authorities say. Allegheny County Police charged Jahwon Glenn, who turned 16 Wednesday, with aggravated assault. He is being prosecuted as an adult. Glenn was arraigned around...
Volunteers offer free Thanksgiving meals to visitors, high-rise residents
Details can get complicated when you’re serving 600 Thanksgiving meals. The ingredients alone are daunting: 30 large turkeys, dozens of 1-gallon cans of yams, 36 bags of stuffing mix, 50 pounds of butter. About 20 volunteers Thursday formed production lines inside Bethel United Methodist Church kitchen in Lower Burrell to...
‘It’s a reunion:’ Greek family, community mark 50 years of Turkey Bowl in Oakmont
Peter Theofilis stalked the sidelines of a touch- football game Thursday and watched a new generation of family and community embrace a Thanksgiving tradition. The inspiration for 12 Pittsburgh-area cousins to stage the first “turkey bowl” game sprouted out of services at a Greek Orthodox church in Oakmont. On Thursday,...
Sweet treats, customized art draw hundreds to Oakmont Christmas event
Kelly Shilala weighed truffles on a scale Saturday afternoon. Bill Hickey sliced fudge. But one of the biggest stars of Oakmont’s Big Hometown Christmas & Parade, which drew hundreds of visitors who packed Allegheny River Boulevard, was clearly Julie Hwostow. Hwostow drew smiles from visitors young and old as she...
‘It’s a lot about family and community.’ Tradition brings crowds to fill A-K Valley streets for Christmas parade
Storm clouds and winter temperatures don’t faze Jamie Ganss. The power of tradition brings the Brackenridge woman every year to the corner of Corbet Street and Third Avenue in Tarentum to watch the Tarentum-Brackenridge Christmas Parade. Her annual ritual to kick off the holidays has generated a deeper meaning since...
Pittsburgh police charge man in Northview Heights homicide
Pittsburgh police are accusing a man of fatally shooting his companion in the back when, investigators say, they opened fire on a group of people earlier this month in the city’s Northview Heights neighborhood. Police on Tuesday arrested Ernest Terry, 18, of Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar and charged him with the death of...
Innamorato touts public safety spending in proposed 2025 budget
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato Wednesday said the $57 million she’s proposing in public safety spending in her 2025 budget would help fund the ongoing modernization of an outdated public safety radio system, ensure there are enough county police to handle emergencies, and roll out a pilot program for civilian...
Police arrest Glassport homicide suspect on PRT bus
A teen remained in jail Tuesday after police charged him with fatally shooting an 18-year-old man at a Glassport bus stop two days earlier. James Martin, 17, of McKeesport fled the shooting scene on a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus but was arrested after the driver told a dispatcher the suspect...
Driver strikes Shaler police vehicle responding to car crash
A driver was hospitalized Monday after striking a Shaler police vehicle en route to a car crash. Shaler police were dispatched about 7 a.m. to Kittanning Street after a car flipped onto its side near the intersection with Badali Drive, Chief Sean Frank said. Firefighters and paramedics extricated the driver,...
Man, 70, shot outside Larimer nursing home
A 70-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday after being shot outside a Pittsburgh nursing home. The man was shot in the stomach about 12:35 p.m. outside Corner View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the 6600 block of Frankstown Avenue in the city’s Larimer neighborhood, police said. The victim,...
FBI investigating robbery at Citizens Bank in Penn Hills
The FBI is investigating a bank robbery Tuesday morning in Penn Hills. Police were dispatched about 11:30 a.m. to Citizens Bank at 6125 Saltsburg Road for reports of a robbery. A man was seen running from the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash, Penn Hills police Chief Ronald Como...
Man jailed after bringing flash-bang grenade to Pittsburgh airport, police say
Security at Pittsburgh International Airport Tuesday morning caught a West Virginia man they said was trying to carry a live flash-bang grenade onto a flight. Allegheny County Police said they arrested Zachary Velling, 25, of Morgantown, after the Transportation Security Administration officers found the device in a passenger bag at...
Medical examiner rules July 4 double drowning in Pine as accidental
The drowning deaths of two men in a swimming pool in Pittsburgh’s North Hills this summer were both accidental, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Tuesday. Christopher Gebhardt, 63, of Pine, and William Miller, 57, of Cranberry were found dead in the pool in the 200 block of Whetherburn...
Gainey joins other elected leaders to tout expanded Pittsburgh-area search-and-rescue unit
Had Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge pinned people under the wreckage when it collapsed in 2022, local first responders would have had to wait for a highly specialized search-and-rescue unit from Philadelphia to help. “If anyone was trapped under the rubble of that bridge, they would’ve had to wait 12 hours,”...
Morning Roundup: Multiple victims injured after 2 shootings in Pittsburgh
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Thursday, Nov. 7: 3 injured in shooting in Pittsburgh’s Northview Heights Three people were injured after at least 20 rounds were fired during a shooting early Thursday in Pittsburgh’s Northview Heights neighborhood. Pittsburgh police said they were dispatched to...
World, state reaction to Trump’s ‘stunning political comeback victory’
World leaders early Wednesday congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his return to the White House as news outlets called the 2024 presidential race for the Republican and former president. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country is managing a multi-front war in the Middle East, became one of the first...
Witness ID, cellphone left at crime scene lead to charges in Stowe homicide
A cellphone left near the scene of a fatal shooting in Stowe this weekend, along with a witness, helped lead police to the Pittsburgh man they charged with pulling the trigger. Curtis Horne-Baker, 34, of Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood, remained Monday in the Allegheny County Jail in connection with the shooting...
Weekend thieves targeted 10-12 cars in Dormont
Dormont police say they’re stepping up patrols near Kelton Avenue after reports of 10 to 12 car break-ins there over the weekend. Residents reported the break-ins Saturday and Sunday on and around Delwood, Kelton and Pinehurst avenues, Officer Robert Barnes said Monday. The most common item stolen was loose change....
Pittsburgh police Acting Chief Ragland orders ‘all hands on deck’ for election week
While there’s no indication the final hours of the presidential race will spur unrest in Pittsburgh, city police are prepared for any problems, Acting Chief Christopher Ragland said Monday morning. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police intelligence unit has not seen evidence of any specific, election-related threats, Ragland said during a...
Stabbing in Downtown Pittsburgh leaves man in critical condition
A man was hospitalized in criticial condition late Thursday after being stabbed in Downtown Pittsburgh. The man, who police did not name, was stabbed in the abdomen about 11:30 p.m. in the 700 block of Liberty Avenue after being involved “in some sort of altercation,” Pittsburgh police said. Paramedics rushed...
Audit of Scirotto’s refereeing while Florida police chief raises concerns among officials in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh police Chief Larry Scirotto keeps dribbling his way into controversy over his side hustle as an NCAA basketball referee. Three years ago, he was the subject of an audit about his officiating while running Fort Lauderdale, Fla.’s police department. The auditor alleged that Scirotto was double dipping — being...
Petting zoo, pony rides punctuate annual Fall in the Wall event in Aspinwall
Everyone had different reasons for filling Aspinwall’s Commercial Avenue in picture-perfect autumn weather Saturday, Oct. 12, during the borough’s annual Fall in the Wall celebration. Fox Chapel resident Jodi Linder watched, with a twinkle in her eye, as granddaughter Alanna gazed at a balloon artist plying their trade. Despite being...
DA won’t seek death penalty for man charged in Homewood triple homicide
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office on Monday said it would no longer seek the death penalty for a man charged in a Pittsburgh triple killing. Ronald Steave, 32, had been facing the possibility of capital punishment if found guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend Nandi Fitzgerald, 28; her son, Denzel...
