Justin Vellucci stories, Page 16
Sheriff’s deputies take custody of man charged in 2023 police shootout
A Pittsburgh ex-con charged in connection with a 2023 shootout with undercover officers was taken into custody on Wednesday after two months on the lam. Police said they found “multiple items” that connected Jarrell Saunders, 39, of the Hill District, and two other men with a Feb. 27, 2023 shootout...
Labor board files for injunction seeking to end lengthy Post-Gazette strike
The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday asked for an injunction to force the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to take back striking workers and return to the bargaining table in a nearly two-year strike that union leaders say is the longest in the city’s history. The petition for injunction in federal court...
Plunge, scoop, repeat: ‘Industrial-strength’ cleanup of Pittsburgh’s rivers yields stinky, silty treasure
The demolition claw — its dirt-brown metal fingers guided by an excavator’s gray 50-foot-long arm — plunged Tuesday afternoon into the cloudy, brownish-green surface of the Allegheny River in search of discarded pieces of Pittsburgh. Chained to a rusty-bottomed 32-by-120 foot barge, the excavator sent its arm diving over and...
50,000 pounds of car parts and 1 Beetle later, dredging improves Allegheny River
The ghosts of cars from the 1960s and earlier haunt the confluence of the Pittsburgh’s three rivers. Parts from up to 100 vehicles — many believed to be from a long-defunct Downtown parking lot — are submerged in the Allegheny River, according to Captain Evan Clark of Three Rivers Waterkeeper,...
Authorities ID woman killed in 3-vehicle North Hills crash
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office on Friday identified the woman killed this week in a three-car crash in Pittsburgh’s North Hills as Patricia Everetts, 76, of Butler. The accident occurred when a motorist driving south Thursday on Route 8, also known as William Flynn Highway, stopped to turn left...
Dormont crash victim identified as mother of 2
Authorities on Friday ruled the death of a woman killed earlier this week in a crash in Dormont as accidental. Ashlynn E. Gonzalez, 25, was killed in the two-vehicle crash near the intersection of West Liberty and Key avenues shortly after 1 p.m. on Sunday, authorities said. Gonzalez was pronounced...
Eagles’ nest on Pittsburgh hillside destroyed by storms
The bald eagles nesting on a wooded Monongahela River hillside for more than a decade need to rebuild. Thunderstorms Tuesday packing wind gusts more than 35 mph destroyed the eagles’ nest deep in Pittsburgh’s Hays neighborhood. The collapsed nest was at least the fourth one that the eagles had built...
Police seek videos from Ohio Township parking lot that might offer clues in fatal shooting
The Pittsburgh teen who was shot in a North Hills parking lot last week and died a short distance away “was targeted,” Allegheny County Police said Friday. Jordan Nathan Ross Geiger, 18, was shot once in the torso in a Giant Eagle parking lot in the 100 block of Ohio...
Doorbell camera captures fatal shooting in Mount Oliver
The Mount Oliver home’s doorbell camera caught it all. A young man approached 122 Amanda Ave. after noon Saturday, a gun magazine sticking out from the right pocket of his shorts. An older man opened the door, then took a few steps back. “Don’t ever in your life touch...
ShotSpotter comes under fire as Pittsburgh expands gunshot detection system
Over the past decade, Pittsburgh has sunk nearly $10 million into ShotSpotter, the most widely used gunshot-detection system in America. The controversial crime-fighting technology uses sound to quickly pinpoint gunfire, allowing police to be rapidly deployed to crime scenes. Its makers claim it can help reduce gun violence and save...
Feds indict 19 in ‘large-scale’ drug ring linking Western Pa., Detroit
Authorities have busted a “large-scale” drug-trafficking network that had been using “trap houses” to shuttle fentanyl and other street drugs between Detroit and Western Pennsylvania since last summer, federal prosecutors announced this week. An indictment unsealed Thursday in Pittsburgh charged 19 suspects — 10 of them from New Castle —...
Morning Roundup: Route 51 detours begin as crews raze Pittsburgh bridge
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Friday, Aug. 2: Route 51 detours begin Demolition work started late Thursday on a poorly rated bridge in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood. Part of Route 51, also known as Saw Mill Run Boulevard, closed as crews began work to...
Zappala condemns antisemitic graffiti in Squirrel Hill, says vandals committed possible hate crime
Vandals “crossed the line” by spray-painting a red triangle on a religious building in Pittsburgh’s center of Jewish life earlier this week and might be subject to federal prosecution for a hate crime, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. said Thursday. The inverted red triangle — which was...
Pittsburgher Michael Grady, Team USA net Olympic gold in men’s rowing
A Central Catholic alum won Olympic gold Thursday morning and made history for Team USA. Michael Grady, a graduate of the Pittsburgh-based private high school, and the U.S. rowing team took first place in the men’s four final event at the Paris Olympics. It’s the first time Americans have taken...
Swissvale woman sentenced to 6 years probation for yearslong sexual relationship with teen
A judge on Tuesday sentenced a Pittsburgh-area therapist to probation for having a yearslong sexual relationship with a boy starting when he was 14. Rachel Witkowski, 43, of Swissvale pleaded guilty to three of the 11 charges against her — statutory sexual assault by a person 11 or more years...
Morning Roundup: South Side patrol figures; road work projects to impact traffic
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Monday, July 18: Latest South Side patrol figures released Pittsburgh police officers on the bureau’s South Side Entertainment Patrol made seven arrests along East Carson Street over the weekend. The special patrol was launched last summer to tamp down...
FBI: Trump shooter shopped on gun websites using aliases, encrypted email
The 20-year-old Bethel Park man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Butler County political rally used foreign-based encrypted email accounts and aliases to make more than 25 purchases on firearms websites and buy six chemical precursors online since spring 2023, the FBI said Monday. Authorities said...
Morning Roundup: Driver injured in Whitehall crash
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Monday, July 29: Driver injured in Whitehall crash A driver was injured in a two-vehicle crash Sunday afternoon on Route 51 in Pittsburgh’s South Hills neighborhood. First responders, including six firefighters, were dispatched to the scene at 4:04 p.m.,...
Beaver County SWAT details communication breakdown during attempted assassination of Trump
A Beaver County SWAT sniper said his team had no contact July 13 with former President Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail before he spotted would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks scoping out a building with a range finder near the Butler County fairgrounds where the 20-year-old Bethel Park man later fired...
Butler County’s first-ever West Fest celebrates those ‘pretending to be cowboys for a day’
For Doug Sprankle, those familiar items that symbolize the American West — cowboy hats and leather boots, horses and quick-draw competitions — always have been loaded with deeper meaning. “My dad always had horses, as did his father before him — we just enjoy that sense of freedom,” Sprankle said...
Coroner identifies victim of 2-vehicle crash on Canonsburg’s First Street
The Washington County Coroner’s Office identified the driver killed Sunday afternoon in a two-vehicle crash in Canonsburg as Joyce Gray, 58, of Washington, Pa. Coroner Tim Warco said first responders transported Gray to Canonsburg Hospital after the crash at 1:30 p.m. in the 1100 block of First Street, near the...
TSA officers arrest traveler with revolver in a backpack at Pittsburgh International Airport
A West Virginia woman was arrested Sunday after she tried to fly out of Pittsburgh International Airport with a revolver in her backpack, authorities said. Transportation Security Administration officials spotted the gun at the Findlay airport’s main security checkpoint shortly before 10:45 a.m. Allegheny County Police said Amber Brooks, 33,...
No injuries reported in Springdale house fire
A fire tore through a Springdale home Sunday morning, causing no injuries but gutting much of the residence. Emergency crews were dispatched to the 300 block of Murtland Street at around 10:30 a.m. No injuries were reported. A member of Allegheny County Fire Marshall’s investigative team remained at the scene...
Police arrest man in Versailles stabbing rampage that left 1 dead, 2 hurt
After drinking tequila and smoking marijuana, an out-of-control Washington County man tore through a Mon Valley duplex Thursday night, killing one man, attempting to stab another and forcing a woman into a headlock before apologizing and fleeing the scene with a dog, police said. Allegheny County Police on Friday charged...
Pittsburgh police wound man in exchange of gunfire while responding to domestic dispute
A veteran Pittsburgh police officer shot and wounded a man Tuesday morning in the city’s Garfield neighborhood. Authorities said the officer was responding to a domestic disturbance in the 4900 block of Kincaid Street when the 20-year-old suspect began shooting. The man fired multiple rounds at the officer, said Allegheny...
