Justin Vellucci stories, Page 17
Authorities ID man killed by Churchill police in front of his Forest Hills home
Details emerged Tuesday about the man that a Churchill police officer fatally shot last week outside his Forest Hills home. Police said Gregory Carlson, 48 was armed when they encountered him around 9:20 p.m. Thursday night outside his house in the 200 block of Glasgow Road. Officers from Forest Hills,...
What we know: Pa. AG Henry calls for assault-weapons ban
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry on Friday called on both state and federal legislators to create or reinstate assault-weapons bans, and stressed more needs to be done to address American politicians’ “collective indifference to addressing this issue.” Former President Donald Trump, who a gunman tried to assassinate at Butler County...
Police remain mum about man killed by Churchill cop in Forest Hills
A Churchill police officer shot and killed an armed man Thursday night outside a Forest Hills home, but details about the incident remained sparse Friday as officials refused to divulge more information. The 48-year-old man, who police did not name, died overnight, according to Allegheny County Police. Officials and police...
Butler Township official describes how small-town cops tried to thwart Trump shooter
As a House committee took steps Wednesday to grill the Secret Service director about her beleaguered agency’s actions surrounding the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, a local official in Butler County described how two small-town police officers tried unsuccessfully to thwart the gunman. The details from Butler Township’s manager emerged...
‘Kind of a part of history’: Crawford County man captures cellphone video of Trump shooting
Something didn’t feel right to Mike DiFrischia. The business owner and registered Republican had attended rallies twice previously for former President Donald Trump. But something seemed off, he said, when he saw a teenage boy “with the look of panic on his face” dart through the Butler Farm Show fairground...
Multistate forgery ring suspects head to trial in Allegheny County bank thefts
Early this year, police broke up what they said was a multistate crime ring of document forgers and identity thieves who swindled thousands of dollars from personal bank accounts in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Kentucky. Four thieves hailing from New York, Indiana and Delaware drove a rented car from bank...
Lawsuit: Penn Hills hookah bar owners’ negligence created ‘public nuisance’
The parents of a 28-year-old woman killed in a shooting at a Penn Hills hookah bar sued the owner of the property Thursday, claiming they should have known the bar was “a public nuisance” prone to gun violence. Two or more people fired seven to 10 gunshots at Ballers Hookah...
2 window washers rescued from scaffolding on Pittsburgh skyscraper
Two window washers stranded on scaffolding Friday in Downtown Pittsburgh were rescued by firefighters and EMS workers, officials said. The workers stranded on the side of the BNY Tower skyscraper on Ross Street between the seventh and eighth floors, shortly after 11 a.m., when their scaffolding lost power. Both men...
Convicted killer of Swissvale mom and young daughter refuses to leave jail cell for sentencing
Kareef Easington didn’t want to face justice, but there was no escaping it. Convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting death last year of a Swissvale woman and her 7-year-old daughter, Easington refused to leave his jail cell Thursday to attend his sentencing — and face his...
Violent incidents in Downtown Pittsburgh prompt police to bolster presence
On a Thursday afternoon last month, a summer intern from Pittsburgh’s suburbs was walking on Downtown’s Smithfield Street when she was savagely attacked. Her assailant punched her twice in the head, dragged her into the street by her hair and broke her nose by punching and kicking her in the...
Judge gives Etna mom probation in infant son’s drowning death
A judge on Monday sentenced an Etna woman to probation in the drowning death last year of her 1-year-old son in a backyard pool. Brittany Garrison, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter, court records show. Prosecutors dropped charges of endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly...
Fatal Homestead crash victim identified as Duquesne woman
Authorities on Monday identified the woman killed last week in a multi-vehicle crash in Homestead as Lynn Reynolds, 47, of Duquesne. Doctors at UPMC Mercy hospital pronounced Reynolds dead at 12:37 p.m. on Saturday. No cause or manner of death has been determined yet. At least six people were hospitalized...
‘All hands on deck’: Police gear up for Pittsburgh’s July 4 fireworks
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Rocco Gagliardi, like many area residents, admires the iconic view of Downtown that motorists get when emerging from the inbound Fort Pitt Tunnel. He just doesn’t want motorists watching Independence Day fireworks from there Thursday night. “People like to stop on the bridge to watch; people...
‘We’re not going down without a fight:’ 1 year into Pittsburgh police patrol, tide is turning on South SideVideo
While walking down East Carson Street at 12:52 a.m. June 8 in Pittsburgh’s South Side, city police Sgt. Andrew Robinson spotted a man standing outside a shuttered pizza shop, sifting marijuana into brown rolling papers. As Robinson approached, the man quickly ditched the drugs on a window ledge. The two...
Police arrest parolee in killing of sister’s boyfriend outside Braddock Hills bar
A Washington County parolee remained in jail Friday after, authorities say, he killed his sister’s boyfriend following an argument that ended in the parking lot of a Braddock Hills bar earlier this month. Allegheny County Police said Abdullaah Bin Francken, 23, of North Franklin, fatally shot William Coffey, 24, early...
Colorado company wrongly tickets hundreds who paid to park for PPG arena events
Hundreds of people who attended events last month at PPG Paints Arena and paid hefty fees to park at nearby surface lots were wrongly ticketed through the mail by a Denver-area company. On Thursday, a top executive with the company, Parking Revenue Recovery Services, acknowledged the screw-up and said the...
Woman charged with trying to slip drug-soaked papers to boyfriend in Pittsburgh court
A Stowe woman was jailed Wednesday after, Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies said, they caught her trying to deliver drug-soaked papers to her boyfriend during his court hearing on charges involving the same type of drugs. Alisha Hunt, 28, delivered “an envelope full of paperwork” about 8 a.m. Tuesday to a...
Police arrest third person in June’s pro-Palestine protest at Pitt
A Pittsburgh man has been arrested for storming a barrier and injuring a police officer last month during pro-Palestine protests at the University of Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh Police on Monday arrested Cole Florkewicz, 24, of the city’s Perry South neighborhood, as the third person charged in connection with what...
5 injured in Schenley Park stabbing
Five people were injured in a stabbing Sunday night at a Schenley Park soccer field, Pittsburgh police said. Two men arrived at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, each with stab wounds, shortly before 11 p.m., police said. Paramedics transferred one of the men to a local trauma center in serious but stable...
‘I wanted to meet some Pittsburgh Pirates’: Man charged in yacht theft
An intoxicated man is accused of stealing an 82-foot yacht from a Strip District marina and piloting it about a half-mile down the Allegheny River Friday morning, Pittsburgh police said. Michael Fischer, 38, is accused of breaking into the Lock Wall Marina off 23rd Street Friday morning, then boarding and...
County fines U.S. Steel nearly $80K in latest round of air-pollution penalties
The Allegheny County Health Department on Thursday fined U.S. Steel nearly $80,000 for air pollution the department said its Clairton Coke Works created in the first quarter of 2023. The $79,545 fine includes soaking and pushing violations at the coke works, a 123-year-old plant that sits on 392 acres on...
Tree of Life groundbreaking brings hope for the future amid antisemitism concerns
Audrey Glickman learned about antisemitism at a young age. In the second grade, the third-generation Pittsburgher started walking to B’nai Emunoh, an Orthodox shul a few blocks away in Greenfield’s working-class business district. She studied there for several years, until her bat mitzvah, the Jewish rite of passage into adulthood,...
2 grenades confiscated at Pittsburgh airport checkpoint
Bombs away, indeed. TSA has confirmed that its security officers stopped two passengers on Wednesday from smuggling grenades onto flights leaving Pittsburgh International Airport. TSA intercepted a “smoke grenade” from one traveler’s carry-on bag, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. A more iconic, circular grenade was discovered the same day at...
‘He was in amazing shape’: Central Catholic, cycling community remember Bob Anderson
Robert “Bob” Anderson gave 110% on everything he did. The North Hills man displayed the same passion for teaching physical education at Central Catholic High School as he did for biking in national competitions or just around the trails of Allegheny County’s nine parks. Fiercely dedicated to fitness and a...
Hippie Town dispensary battles with residents, Pittsburgh officials over product legality
Christopher Younger lacked a suit, a tie and a law degree as he strode into Pittsburgh Municipal Court, preparing to represent himself against charges that he illegally sold marijuana at his Pittsburgh vape shops. The 42-year-old Hippie Town store owner sported a white T-shirt and blue sweatpants, his white socks...
