Justin Vellucci stories, Page 6
Pa. appeals court reinstates Pittsburgh cop fired over Taser use in fatal encounter
A Pennsylvania appeals court Friday paved the way for a controversial Pittsburgh police officer to return to work after he was fired for repeatedly using his Taser on a homeless man who died the next day. The city’s police union hailed the decision by a seven-member panel of Commonwealth Court...
Robinson cop charged with off-duty assault on business owner
A Robinson police officer is facing assault charges after, authorities say, he punched a township business owner during a road-rage spat while off duty. Allegheny County Police charged Steven Pies, 50, of Robinson on Wednesday with one count each of aggravated assault and simple assault. Investigators said Pies attacked Alan...
Allegheny County fires jail guard after furor over racist viral video
An embattled Allegheny County Jail corrections officer has been fired three weeks after a video surfaced online purportedly showing him making a racist comment about Black people while holding a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. A county official confirmed Friday that Brian Davis, who started working at the Downtown...
‘The greatest guy’: Coraopolis mourns resident killed in hit-and-run crash
Ulises Montalvo plodded daily along Coraopolis’ sidewalks pushing a lawn mower, carrying his trusty weed-whacker and looking for work. On Wednesday, a symbol of that drive to work — Montalvo’s well-worn, black boots — sat empty at the foot of a makeshift memorial to the Coraopolis man, killed Sunday in...
Stowe carjacking arrest leads police to suspect in Pittsburgh shooting
One of the two men arrested Monday in connection with a carjacking and high-speed chase that shut down a Pittsburgh bridge was wanted for shooting someone last week. The man police identified as the passenger in the stolen vehicle — Vaughn Hall, 34, of Pittsburgh — was charged with an...
Police arrest 2 in Stowe carjacking after chase shuts 31st Street Bridge
Two carjacking suspects were arrested Monday afternoon after crashing the vehicle police said they stole and trying to run from authorities — triggering a manhunt that shut down the 31st Street Bridge and snarled traffic on nearby Route 28. Stowe police reported a carjacking around 3 p.m. and called in...
Probe into fatal East Hills fire that killed girl, 2, remains open
A 2-year-old girl killed when a December fire gutted a Pittsburgh apartment died from thermal injuries and breathing in carbon monoxide, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office announced Monday. Firefighters pulled Praise Lemons from the blaze that broke out at Maple Ridge Apartments in the city’s East Hills neighborhood around...
Final member of trio charged in fatal Pittsburgh drug robbery heads to trial
Police say Sammie Lane Jr. executed Tayrod Ford in August 2022 during a drug robbery in Pittsburgh’s East End and then fled several hours later aboard a Greyhound bus. It would take nearly three years for authorities to track Lane down. They found him in March in a Lancaster County...
Hockey mom charged after scuffle with teen ref at RMU sports complex
Nobody dropped the gloves, but a confrontation earlier this month between a hockey mom and a teenage referee at a Neville Island ice rink has led to a court date. Andrea Bucci, 38, of Franklin Park is facing assault charges and was banned from the Robert Morris University Island Sports...
Hockey mom charged after scuffle with teen ref at RMU sports complex
Nobody dropped the gloves, but a confrontation this month between a hockey mom and a teenage referee at a Neville Island ice rink has led to a court date. Andrea Bucci, 38, of Franklin Park is facing assault charges and was banned from the Robert Morris University Island Sports Complex...
Is Downtown Pittsburgh safe? With NFL Draft looming, perception battles realityVideo
Downtown Pittsburgh, by turns glamorous and grimy, boasts a split personality. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey emphatically frames the gateway to the city as safe and vibrant. But persistent problems with homelessness, drugs and violent crime have long threatened to undermine that narrative. Just last month, police charged a man with...
Morning Roundup: Driver escapes injury in turnpike fire; 2 injured in Penn Hills crash
Here are some of the latest news items happening this morning, Thursday, July 24: Driver escapes injury in Turnpike fire A driver freed themselves from a tractor-trailer cab after a fire broke out inside of it Wednesday afternoon on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, authorities said. First responders from the Wexford Volunteer...
Police probe Wilkinsburg rollover crash
Two men were hospitalized early Tuesday after their car crashed and overturned in Wilkinsburg, authorities said. Police who were dispatched at 12:12 a.m. to the 400 block of Ardmore Boulevard said they found a red Chevy Camaro overturned, with two men inside. Paramedics took the driver, who police did not...
‘It’s hard not to break’: Daughter of Plum house explosion victims continues to grieve without closureVideo
Wherever Taylor Oravitz goes, her childhood home goes with her. The Plum native had her Rustic Ridge Drive home’s GPS coordinates tattooed on her forearm, though not for nostalgia’s sake. Rather, it’s a kind of memorial in ink and flesh. On Aug. 12, 2023, a massive explosion at her family’s...
‘Series of failures’: Lawsuit blames fatal Plum house explosion on pipeline leak, water heaterVideo
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on July 23. It’s being reposted on the two-year anniversary of the tragedy in Plum. Families of the six people killed in a 2023 house explosion in Plum’s Rustic Ridge subdivision have sued multiple companies for negligence and wrongful death, blaming them for...
Baby’s death spurs homicide charge against Pittsburgh teen already accused of child abuse
Police have charged a Pittsburgh teenager with homicide in the death of the 10-month-old son of the person he was dating. Dominick Pinnick, 18, of Homewood had been under arrest since Sunday on attempted homicide and other charges after police said he abused and critically injured the baby when he...
Morning Roundup: Work on Parkway East to shutter traffic in Monroeville; sunny skies in week ahead
Here are some of the latest news items happening this morning, Monday, July 21: Parkway East work to impact Monroeville traffic Part of Old William Penn Highway in Monroeville will temporarily close to traffic Monday night, weather permitting, PennDOT officials announced. Motorists will not be able to travel on Old...
McKeesport man dies following motorcycle crash in Fayette County
A McKeesport man was killed Saturday after a motorcycle crash in Fayette County, Pennsylvania State Police said late Sunday. David Lesko, 34, died after the crash around 6:30 p.m. on Morgantown Road in Springhill Township, police said. Paramedics had rushed Lesko to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, police said....
Authorities ID South Park house fatal fire victim
Authorities have identified the fatal fire victim from Monday morning in the South Hills as a 42-year-old man from South Park. Donald Uncapher was pronounced dead at 1:36 a.m. at the scene of the fire in the 1100 block of Mike Reed Drive in South Park. Police, firefighters and EMS...
3 men charged in Larimer slaying headed to court after 7-hour hearing
Three Pittsburgh men accused of killing a Woodland Hills High School football standout last year during a drug deal that escalated into an execution are headed to court. After a marathon, seven-hour preliminary hearing Friday, District Judge Lisa Caulfield sent charges in the fatal shooting of Gavin Yarbough, 21, to...
Man charged with stabbing victim up to 40 times in Downtown Pittsburgh heads to trial
An Ohio man is headed to trial on charges that he stabbed a 65-year-old man dozens of times on a Downtown Pittsburgh sidewalk last month. A district judge Thursday sent the case of Christopher Leroy Harris Jr., 30, of Sidney, Ohio, 40 miles north of Dayton, to Allegheny County Common...
Hip surgery to force GOP’s Moreno off Pittsburgh mayoral campaign trail for 1 month
Tony Moreno, the Pittsburgh Republican mayoral hopeful, will be off the campaign trail for up to a month following an upcoming hip surgery. Moreno, a retired Pittsburgh police officer who first ran for mayor in 2021, said the “minimally invasive” surgery will attempt to stem the effects of degenerative arthritis...
Police: McKeesport bus stop stabbing prompted by attack from partly naked man
An Indianapolis man remained in jail Monday after police say he disrobed from the waist down at a McKeesport bus stop in a manic state, shouted racial slurs and attacked two people — prompting one of them to stab him multiple times in self-defense. Brayden Dixon, 21, approached a Pittsburgh...
Judge: Proper notice was not given in bond hearing of man later charged in fatal shooting
Allegheny County’s president judge ruled Thursday the public defender’s office did not provide “proper notice” that it was going to Orphans’ Court to seek the release from jail of a man with intellectual disabilities who was later charged with killing a woman in Pittsburgh. The decision by the Allegheny County...
McKeesport man charged with slaying during drug deal gone ‘sideways’
Police have made an arrest in the slaying last month of an Ohio man found shot in the head and slumped over inside his still-running vehicle in Pittsburgh’s East End. Daevone Brown, 30, of McKeesport was arrested Wednesday and charged with homicide, attempted homicide and other offenses in connection with...
