Justin Vellucci stories, Page 22
Fifth gun of ’24 confiscated at Pittsburgh International Airport; Warren County man charged
A Warren County man was arrested Tuesday after, authorities said, he tried to bring a loaded handgun onto his flight at Pittsburgh International Airport. Jeremy Snell, 36, of Warren was charged with a felony count of carrying a firearm without a license after Transportation Security Administration officers found a 9mm...
New Pittsburgh police substation opens Downtown on Wood Street
A new, bigger Pittsburgh police substation opened Downtown on Wednesday, as police and city officials touted the two-story building as key to controlling crime in Pittsburgh’s central business district. A total of 17 Pittsburgh police officers, two sergeants and one lieutenant will operate out of the Wood Street location, police...
Pair charged with torturing man, holding him captive for 10 hours in Penn Hills home
Authorities arrested a woman Tuesday on charges that she and a partner held a man captive for 10 hours in a Penn Hills home, stripped him naked and tortured him. Yolanda Scott, 32, of Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood was taken to the Allegheny County Jail after sheriff’s deputies found her in...
‘The cost of living in this country’: Experts, Pittsburghers reflect on Kansas City shooting
When news broke on Jeff “Mac” McCafferty’s TV about the Kansas City Super Bowl parade shooting, the retired Pittsburgh Public Schools history teacher instantly thought of two things. Pittsburgh. And St. Patrick’s Day. The longtime St. Patrick’s Day Parade chairman has for eight years helped organize the city’s largest annual...
Altoona murder suspect arrested after jumping from Pittsburgh airport garage roof
Allegheny County Police took a homicide suspect from Altoona into custody Wednesday after he suffered serious injuries jumping from the second floor of a Pittsburgh International Airport parking garage. Officers responded around 8 a.m. to a report of a jumper, later identified as Joshua Leyo, 30, police spokesman Jim Madalinsky...
Police charge Hill District couple after finding drugs near children’s medical supplies
Pittsburgh police on Tuesday charged a Hill District couple who they said had hard drugs alongside medical supplies used by at least one of their twin 3-year-old boys. Lorenzo Stanley, 42, and Aniya Macon, 23, the children’s legal guardian, were arrested in the 500 block of Crawford Street. After monitoring...
As Chicago abandons ShotSpotter, Pittsburgh plans to expand use of the controversial technology
Pittsburgh’s police chief says the force will keep using ShotSpotter, the controversial gunfire detection system, despite news this week that Chicago will abandon the technology. In fact, a city councilman told TribLive that Pittsburgh plans to expand ShotSpotter’s use. “The bureau does not have any intention to follow Chicago’s lead,”...
Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Pittsburgh next week to discuss clean water issues
Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday. She is expected to talk about the Biden administration’s work on clean water issues. Harris will be joined by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan. Harris visited Pittsburgh in June 2022 to discuss the administration’s efforts to replace lead...
Pittsburgh teen charged with shooting man taking out trash on South Side
Pittsburgh police on Tuesday arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the shooting earlier this month of a man taking out the trash from a South Side convenience store. Delvon Dobbins of Pittsburgh’s Morningside neighborhood was arrested and taken to jail. Dobbins, who is being prosecuted as an adult, is...
Pittsburgh police watchdog opens probe into woman’s hit-and-run death
A watchdog agency has launched a probe into a woman’s middle-of-the-night encounter last month with Pittsburgh police minutes before she was killed by a hit-and-run driver on the West End Bridge. Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board, told TribLive this week that she opened the inquiry...
‘These new leaders’: 13 Pittsburgh cops promoted during ceremony
More than a dozen Pittsburgh police officers were promoted Friday, including several to some of the force’s highest-ranking posts, during a ceremony in the City-County Building, Downtown. Three commanders took the oath to become assistant chiefs, overseeing the roughly 800-strong Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. The new assistant chiefs — Chris...
Woman’s hit-and-run death raises questions about Pittsburgh police policy
Twelve minutes before a car struck and killed Faye McCoy on the West End Bridge last month, she was talking to Pittsburgh police officers nearby. It was almost 3 a.m. on Jan. 27, and police had just arrested McCoy’s friend for drunken driving after the car they were in struck...
Animal welfare groups warn pausing city spay/neuter program will lead to more homeless cats
Jackie Cafaro works day and night to rescue cats left abandoned on Pittsburgh streets. She’s developed Catcalls Rescue, the nonprofit she co-founded in 2021, into an operation that saves, spays or neuters and puts up for adoption 40 to 60 cats a month — with the help of about 30...
South Fayette man heads to trial on charges he filmed sex with girl
A South Fayette man is headed to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on charges that he had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl and used “multiple iPhones” to film the pair having sex, court records show. Matthew Alexander Trax, 24, allegedly had sex several times with the girl, including...
Pittsburgh halts free spay/neuter program after scam by suburban pet owners, officials say
Suburban pet owners, some with designer dogs, faked their addresses to access free, taxpayer-subsidized spay and neuter services meant for use by Pittsburgh residents, the city said Tuesday, as it announced an abrupt pause to the program. The suburbanites were using city addresses of friends and family members to get...
Bethel Park McDonald’s franchisee sued over sex assault by manager settles with teen victim for $4.35M
A $4.35 million settlement announced Monday for a former McDonald’s employee who was sexually assaulted at age 14 at her Bethel Park workplace by her manager, a registered sex offender, is one of multiple legal actions embroiling the Pittsburgh-area franchisee. The franchisee — Rice Enterprises, a Baldwin Borough-based company that...
$2.2M fine is latest entry in Clairton’s air pollution history
Melanie Meade monitors plumes of pollution. Her hilltop home overlooks Clairton Coke Works, the largest coke-manufacturing facility in North America — and Allegheny County’s top source of air pollution. From that tree-dotted perch, Meade uses her iPhone almost daily to photograph emissions spewing from the 123-year-old plant’s coke ovens. Then...
‘This is what money smells like:’ $2.2M fine is latest entry in Clairton’s air pollution history
Melanie Meade monitors plumes of pollution. Her hilltop home overlooks Clairton Coke Works, the largest coke-manufacturing facility in North America — and Allegheny County’s top source of air pollution. From that tree-dotted perch, Meade uses her iPhone almost daily to photograph emissions spewing from the 123-year-old plant’s coke ovens. Then...
Duquesne woman to stand trial on charges of killing infant son
A Duquesne woman who police say tried to blame her infant son’s death on her 3-year-old daughter will face trial on charges that she killed the baby during a night of drinking. Alisha L. Parker, 26, was held for court Friday on homicide and child endangerment charges after a preliminary...
Jim Rogers’ family, public attend Homewood video screening of man’s fatal encounter with Pittsburgh police
Myrtle and Billy Joe Jordan weren’t ready Wednesday to watch their nephew die. The Point Breeze couple last heard from Jim Rogers, who vacationed with them as a boy, a few days before his fatal encounter with Pittsburgh police on Bloomfield’s Harriet Street on Oct. 13, 2021. Rogers, who struggled...
Man fatally struck by vehicle in Strip District identified
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified Thomas F. Sunseri, 56, of Pittsburgh, as the pedestrian killed Jan. 24 after being struck by a vehicle in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. Sunseri died at 8:22 p.m. on Jan. 24 in an area hospital following the incident, the medical examiner said. Sunseri...
Man shot in Brentwood, police seek suspect
One man was injured and another man was being sought as a suspect after a shooting Wednesday morning in Brentwood. Brentwood police were dispatched to the shooting at about 9 a.m. in the 100 block of Hillson Avenue, Allegheny County Police spokesman Jim Madalinsky said. First responders found the man,...
Jim Rogers Taser case did not merit homicide charge, Zappala says
A Pittsburgh police officer was “wrong” but didn’t commit homicide when he repeatedly shocked a homeless man with a Taser, which preceded the man’s death, the officer’s termination, and a $8 million civil lawsuit settlement with the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Tuesday....
DA files criminal charges against Century III, calls former mall a ‘monument to blight’
The owners of the blighted Century III Mall were charged Tuesday in a move by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala to seize ownership and demolish the once-mighty 1.3-million-square-foot building in West Mifflin. The district attorney’s office charged Century III Mall Pa. LLC with causing or risking a catastrophe, a...
Tarentum man pleads no contest in Route 28 fatal crash
A 79-year-old Tarentum man faces up to five years in prison for killing his front-seat passenger in a single-car crash on Route 28 in 2021. Frederick Fattman pleaded no contest Monday to involuntary manslaughter in front of Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Satler, his attorney, Alexander Lindsay, told TribLive. The plea...
