Justin Vellucci stories, Page 18
Pair threw Garfield woman to street in carjacking, police say
A teenager remained held in jail without bail and his suspected accomplice was awaiting arraignment Tuesday in connection with a 3 a.m. carjacking in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood. The victim was checking email in a car in front of her Broad Street home when Daniel Cain, 18, swung open her car...
New Castle man charged in shooting at McKeesport cookout
A New Castle man is headed to Common Pleas court on charges that he shot a man during an argument at a Memorial Day Weekend family cookout in McKeesport. Allegheny County Police charged Vance Sykes, 30, in the May 26 shooting with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person...
California woman charged with homicide in Shadyside baby’s death
A California woman staying in a Shadyside Airbnb was charged with homicide Sunday in connection with the death of a 6½-week-old Pittsburgh boy. Nicole Virzi, 29, of San Diego, said the boy, identified as Leon Katz, fell from a bouncer seat Saturday night while she was watching him in a...
Medical examiner IDs Pittsburgh man fatally shot on Arlington Avenue
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner on Tuesday identified the man fatally shot in Arlington Heights a day earlier as Shawn Marcus Czeczely. Czeczely, 53, of Pittsburgh, was found unresponsive in the 3000 block of Arlington Avenue at 12:54 a.m. Monday, the medical examiner said. He was pronounced dead at the...
Woman arrested in connection with Pittsburgh man’s 2022 overdose death
A Homestead woman illegally sold oxycodone pills that caused a Pittsburgh man to fatally overdose in 2022 with fentanyl levels in his blood that were gauged as double a lethal dose, authorities say. Sharon Holt, 51, was arrested by Pittsburgh police Thursday on charges including drug delivery resulting in death,...
Ex-Pittsburgh police commander gets probation in wiretapping case
A former Pittsburgh police commander on Friday morning agreed to take 24 months of probation on charges that he stashed body-worn cameras in patrol cars last fall to secretly record more than a half-dozen of his own officers. Matthew Lackner, 50, a Mt. Lebanon resident who led Pittsburgh police’s Zone...
Elder fraud cost Allegheny County residents $8M last year, officials say
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. on Thursday used a video’s release as a springboard to warn residents about elder fraud, which scammed more than 12,000 Allegheny County residents out of nearly $8 million last year. Zappala said his office has prevented an estimated $35 million in elder...
Armed robberies in Pittsburgh’s East End could be connected, police say
Pittsburgh police believe a spate of armed robberies carried out last week appear to be connected. The three crimes occurred over 36 hours on June 7 and June 8 and targeted a restaurant, a fast-food chain and a clothing shop in three different neighborhoods in Pittsburgh’s East End. No arrests...
South Hills native crafts video at center of Pittsburgh’s NFL Draft pitch
Tim Oxenreiter needed just five days to craft a video that packs a whole lot of Pittsburgh into 63 seconds. Book-ended by Acrisure Stadium and the picturesque Point State Park, Oxenreiter’s latest ode to his hometown laid on the local mythology thick as part of the region’s pitch to host...
Tiki boat captain saves capsized kayaker in Allegheny River
Call it three for three. A tiki boat captain rescued a man who couldn’t swim after his kayak capsized last weekend on the Allegheny River — the third such rescue by the Pittsburgh-based cruise company in the past 12 months. A Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh captain saw “someone bobbing in the...
Authorities ID man fatally shot by Brentwood police
Authorities on Thursday identified the man fatally shot a day earlier by a Brentwood police officer as Craig W. McGrath of Pittsburgh. McGrath, 37, was shot multiple times Wednesday in Brentwood. Investigators said that an armed McGrath rammed a police vehicle while driving a stolen car and fought with an...
County, nonprofits collaborate to serve those displaced by Downtown Pittsburgh shelter fire
Storm clouds gathered above the shuttered Second Avenue Commons homeless shelter as Ronald McGinnis literally planned his next steps. On Tuesday, the 59-year-old homeless man, who entered the Downtown shelter six weeks ago, watched people pour out of the building as flames shot off its roof and smoke filled the...
Penn Hills mayor links hookah bar killings to love triangle
A weekend shooting at a Penn Hills hookah bar that killed two people and wounded seven others is believed to be a case of targeted violence that might have stemmed from a love triangle, its mayor told TribLive Wednesday. Police have disclosed little about their ongoing investigation. But Penn Hills...
Police: 2 or more shooters opened fire after argument at Penn Hills hookah bar
As many as 100 people crowded inside a Penn Hills hookah bar when gunfire erupted, killing two people, police said Tuesday. Nathaniel Smiley Jr., 44, of Pittsburgh got into an altercation with an unknown man around 2:50 a.m. at Ballers Hookah Lounge and Cigar Bar, Allegheny County Police Lt. Venerando...
Pittsburgh police arrest teen in Sheraden homicide
A Pittsburgh teenager was charged Monday with opening fire on a group of people at a Sheraden intersection late Friday night, killing one of them. Malachi Smith, 18, of Pittsburgh’s Fairywood neighborhood, shot Israel Walker-Young, 18, of Pittsburgh, from the tailgate of a silver Dodge pickup that Smith and six...
Penn Hills hookah bar where 9 were shot lacks liquor license
A Penn Hills hookah bar where nine people were shot over the weekend, two fatally, was operating without a liquor license, authorities said Monday. Allegheny County Police, who are investigating the shooting early Sunday at Ballers Hookah Lounge and Cigar Bar, said they will consult with the District Attorney’s Office...
Pittsburgh police fire cadet charged with DUI in Franklin Park
A Pittsburgh police cadet was fired after authorities said he drove drunk — with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit — after downing multiple beers over four hours at a North Hills bar. Robert Redman, 33, of Ohio Township, told Franklin Park police he had seven or...
Construction worker killed in 9-story fall in Oakland is identified
A construction worker died Thursday morning after falling nine stories from scaffolding at an apartment building under construction in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. Authorities identified the man as John J. Allen, 47, of McKees Rocks. First responders were dispatched shortly before 8 a.m. to 419 Melwood Ave. Allen was pronounced dead...
California woman sentenced to prison for harassing calls to Squirrel Hill synagogue official
Joel Goldstein received the first phone call laced with antisemitic slurs within weeks of a mass shooter murdering 11 Jewish congregants at Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018 — the worst antisemitic attack on U.S. soil. The former executive director of the Squirrel Hill synagogue had left...
‘For those who didn’t come home:’ Family, friends mark Memorial Day at national cemeteryVideo
Sunday marked Peggy Quatman’s first Memorial Day service without Bob. The Glenshaw resident’s husband, a factory worker and Neville Island steelworker, once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his U.S. Navy peers while serving during the Vietnam War. His bleach-white headstone — section 13, site No. 460 — in the National Cemetery of...
‘Gentle giant’ Dylan Tarbi, 13, mourned by family, community
Dylan Tarbi wasn’t the best third-baseman Freeport Area Youth Baseball coaches ever saw. That didn’t matter to the 13-year-old Buffalo Township boy, several people close to Dylan said Saturday. He always just worked to be his best. On Thursday, a day before a single-cab pickup fatally struck Dylan as the...
‘Help me. I’m gonna die.’ McCandless woman mourns granddaughter’s death after asthma attack
Kylee Marie Reiber knew something was wrong. The McCandless sixth-grader had struggled to manage asthma her whole life, family members said. Suffering from a cold on Sunday at her Wittmer Road home, Kylee took two breathing treatments — inhaling the asthma medication Ventolin each time through a nebulizer mask, said...
Alleged victim takes stand in Homewood school sex assault case
A jury trial opened Wednesday for a former Pittsburgh Faison School fourth-grade teacher who authorities allege sexually assaulted a student multiple times when the pair were alone. Police arrested James Zeigler, 42, of Pittsburgh, last year on six criminal charges — including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, and...
Bellevue man to face trial on charges that he raped 2 teenage girls
A Bellevue man will face trial on charges that on several occasions in March he raped two 14-year-old girls — one of them a runaway he met at a Downtown Pittsburgh bus stop. Deandre Steele, 34, was held for court Friday following a preliminary hearing. Police said Steele took the...
Teen’s journey from Cameroon to Pittsburgh reflects city’s refugee influx
When Reol Audhasse and his family fled Cameroon for Pittsburgh last year, surging ethnic violence had displaced more than 1 million residents of the central African nation. Boko Haram, the Islamic terrorist group, had slaughtered thousands of civilians near the country’s northern border with Nigeria. Conditions were dangerous, and so...
