Justin Vellucci stories, Page 5
Baldwin-Whitehall school custodian charged with possessing child porn
Police on Monday arrested a Baldwin-Whitehall School District custodian on numerous child pornography charges after a monthslong investigation found the Whitehall man stored thousands of sexually explicit videos and images on multiple cellphones, authorities said. Michael Siar, 55, was arraigned early Monday on 22 counts of possessing child pornography and...
Pittsburgh police charge Tarentum man in knife attack on bicyclist
A Tarentum man remained jailed Friday on a charge of attempted homicide after police said he sliced a man’s neck during a robbery in Homewood earlier this week. John Reznickcheck, 51, attacked a man around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 900 block of Brushton Avenue as the victim rode his...
Protesters demand action on gun violence, days after school massacre in Minneapolis
Several dozen protesters crowded a Squirrel Hill intersection Thursday — many holding provocative signs, some chanting at passing motorists — to demand an end to the nation’s rash of gun violence. Eight days had passed since a gunman opened fire in a Minneapolis Catholic school. He killed two children while...
4 Pittsburgh firefighters hurt battling blaze in South Side Slopes
Four Pittsburgh firefighters were treated at an area hospital after they were shocked Thursday morning while battling a blaze in the city’s South Side Slopes neighborhood. The firefighters, who authorities declined to name, “came into contact with an electrical current” inside an unoccupied home in the 100 block of Monastery...
Authorities ID Pittsburgh man as Lawrenceville gas station homicide victim
Authorities on Tuesday identified a 26-year-old Pittsburgh man as the person fatally shot last month at a Lawrenceville gas station. Davon Smith-Mahdi was killed, and a second person was wounded, on Aug. 2 at the A-Plus Sunoco gas station in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood. Pittsburgh police charged a clerk at the...
Pleasant Hills man killed son, then himself, police say
A Pleasant Hills man Monday morning fatally shot his son before turning the gun on himself, authorities confirmed Tuesday. Edgar Dawson, 72, shot his son, Bradley, 38, once in the head around 7 a.m. in the single-family home they shared, Allegheny County Police said. He then shot himself in the...
Foam, fetch and fancy cocktails: Pittsburgh pups party at Dog Penn’s Labor Day bash
The Dog Penn, a private dog park and bar in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, offered its patrons Monday all the accoutrements of a fantastic Labor Day celebration. A bartender was ready to sling cocktails like Frenchie, a mix of butterfly pea gin, lemon and prosecco, and fill pint glasses with a...
1 injured in blaze that destroys boat on Allegheny River near Harmar
One person was hospitalized after a boat caught fire Monday afternoon in the Allegheny River near Harmar. Police, firefighters and first responders were dispatched about 3 p.m. following reports of the fire, emergency services spokesman Kasey Reigner told TribLive. The boat caught fire on the water near the Allegheny River...
Police: Suspect in custody after St. Ann church arson, 4 other Greene County fires
A suspect was identified and arrested Monday after a rash of weekend fires in Greene County, including one at the county’s oldest Roman Catholic church, state police said. They didn’t release the suspects name or if charges have been filed. There were five separate fires that police believe are connected...
U.S. Steel sets 2 batteries involved in deadly blast at Clairton Coke Works to ‘hot idle’ mode
U.S. Steel officials announced Friday they set two coke batteries at the heart of a deadly Clairton Coke Works explosion this month to “hot idle,” meaning they will remain heated but not being used for coke production. “The hot idle state of the batteries will allow them to maintain their...
Pitt hit with ‘armed shooter’ hoax day after school shooting in Minneapolis
The University of Pittsburgh on Thursday became the latest school targeted by a fake report of an armed shooter on campus, a day after a man opened fire during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, killing two children and injuring 17. At 12:28 p.m., University of Pittsburgh police sent out...
Man stabbed in North Side, hospitalized in critical condition
A man was hospitalized in critical condition Thursday after being stabbed in Pittsburgh’s North Side. Pittsburgh police found the man, who they have not named, around 6 a.m. near the intersection of Pressley Street and Cedar Avenue in the city’s East Allegheny, or Deutschtown, neighborhood. Police said the man had...
Shaler Area High School student in custody after mother found gun in his bedroom
A 16-year-old Shaler Area High School student who led police on a search for nine hours Thursday after his mother found a gun on his bed was taken into custody late in the afternoon. Multiple law enforcement agencies searched Shaler and surrounding neighborhoods with a drone and dogs for the...
Man stabbed in shoulder near Homewood intersection
A man was hospitalized Wednesday morning after being stabbed in Homewood. Pittsburgh police said they found the injured man, who had been stabbed in the upper shoulder area, around 9 a.m. near the intersection of Frankstown and North Homewood avenues. Authorities have not named the victim. Police said “the victim...
Government officials join fight against ‘designer Xanax’ that’s killed dozens in Western Pa.
Pennsylvania’s attorney general has joined a growing call for emergency action against bromazolam, a dangerous drug often dubbed “designer Xanax” that has killed hundreds — including dozens in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. In a letter sent last week to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Attorney General Dave Sunday and others...
Fentanyl-laced pills kill Pittsburgh man and lead to court date for suspected dealer
A Homestead woman is headed to court on charges she sold fentanyl-laced pills that killed an area man with double the lethal levels of the drug. Police say Sharon Holt, 52, didn’t directly sell Jason Switzer the three blue pills that the 41-year-old man thought were Oxycodone, a potent opiate....
Pittsburgh police reveal location, timing of North Side sexual assaults
Pittsburgh police on Friday said the string of sexual assaults they’re investigating on the North Side occurred overnight this summer around the East Ohio Street business district. Police previously had not publicly narrowed down the location or divulged the timing of the assaults. The attacks occurred “roughly between 1 and...
Police probe vehicle thefts in multiple Allegheny County communities
Police on Friday arrested three Pittsburgh teens in connection with the theft of a pickup truck in Franklin Park, the latest episode in what appears to be a recent rash of auto thefts and car break-ins throughout Allegheny County. Shaler police said they arrested Jameea Matthews, 18, of South Side...
Police seek armed, masked carjackers who stole Jaguar in Scott
Authorities are looking for four men who they say carjacked a Jaguar at gunpoint Thursday afternoon outside a Scott shopping center. The men, all of whom were wearing masks, drove at least one vehicle, a white and black Dodge Durango, to a traffic light near the Greentree Shopping Center on...
Pittsburgh police probe videos of people taping mice to fireworks, then lighting them
Pittsburgh police are looking for individuals who duct-taped mice to fireworks before igniting the devices, then posted videos of the rodents’ deaths to social media. The police bureau announced Wednesday it was aware of the animal cruelty acts and an accompanying social-media post. Detectives said they have recovered a plastic...
‘Evil’: Ohio man goes to prison for sex trafficking girl at Monroeville hotel
A federal judge has sentenced an Ohio man to 12½ years in prison for renting Monroeville hotel rooms and prostituting a girl and two women he brought across state lines. Donte L. Cole, 40, of Euclid, Ohio transported the girl from Cleveland to the Rodeway Inn & Suites hotel in...
Police arrest Monroeville man in Downtown Pittsburgh daylight shooting
A Monroeville man has been arrested for wounding two people earlier this month in a daylight shooting in Downtown Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. Pittsburgh police say Jaraye McLaughlin, 28, opened fire Aug. 1 near the end of the work day on Penn Avenue, near the Barcelona Wine Bar. A woman was...
Authorities name Pittsburgh man fatally shot last month in Penn Hills
A man who was fatally shot in Penn Hills last month has been identified as a 31-year-old resident of Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday publicly identified the victim as Austin Lamont Turner. He was found by police on July 7 in the 11000 block...
Clairton Coke Works, site of deadly explosions, stirs both pride and pain
Brian Doyle remembers the explosion that hurled him to the coke plant’s floor — but little else from that day. It was a Wednesday — July 14, 2010 — and Doyle, a steamfitters union member and contractor for Power Piping, was inside the Clairton Coke Works getting ready to repair...
‘Inherent dangers’ seen as ever-present in steel industry
Rich Lattanzi knows all about safety in U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley facilities. At age 26, decades before he was elected in 2010 as mayor of Clairton — a city built, largely, to run the coke works — the former plumber started a three-decade U.S. Steel career by toiling in the...
