Justin Vellucci stories, Page 7
2 Hazelwood men charged with abusing 6 puppies
Two Pittsburgh men were jailed without bail Wednesday on dozens of animal cruelty charges that accused them of cutting off six puppies’ tails at their Hazelwood home, among other abuse. The botched docking of the tails led some of the dogs to need surgery and at least one to death....
Uber driver, passenger shot overnight in Homestead
An Uber driver and passenger were hospitalized after being shot early Wednesday in the Mon Valley, authorities said. Allegheny County Police were dispatched around 1:20 a.m. to Homestead’s West Street after 911 dispatchers received a report about a man with a gunshot wound there. The man, who police have not...
North Side woman jailed for assaulting mother now faces homicide charge in her death
Police have charged a Reserve Township woman with delivering the bone-breaking punch that caused her 73-year-old mother’s death — just days after the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the mother’s death a homicide. Krystal Slepski, 43, punched Patricia Kachinko in the chest during a June 2 argument at Kachinko’s...
Police charge Carnegie man with leaving dogs to roast in scorching heat
A Carnegie man is facing a preliminary hearing after police accused him of leaving his three dogs outside during a sweltering week in June without food or water, leading one animal to suffer brain swelling and die. Carnegie police on Monday arrested James Brandon Lewis, 41, on three felony counts...
Passenger sues Allegheny County Police over incident at Pittsburgh airport
A New Jersey man said a decision by Allegheny County Police to detain him two years ago at Pittsburgh International Airport when he began asking questions after his flight was canceled violated his constitutional rights and “is an example of the systemic injustice routinely faced by Black men,” according to...
Pittsburgh police union head labels South Side a ‘disaster’ after attack on officers with fireworksVideo
As chaos disrupted Pittsburgh’s busiest entertainment corridor for the third consecutive week over the Fourth of July weekend, several people tossed firecrackers, bottle rockets and M80s into the crowd and at police, leaving three officers with minor injuries. Shortly before bars and clubs closed Saturday at 2 a.m., multiple people...
Police report death of 1 Sunday shooting victim in Penn Hills
One of two women shot Sunday night in Penn Hills has died, authorities said Monday. She was identified by the Allegheny County County Medical Examiner’s Office as Ojanay Pride, 26, of Pittsburgh’s West Oakland neighborhood. Allegheny County Police found two women suffering from gunshot wounds after officers were dispatched to...
Lincoln Beach residents, past and present, celebrate 100th anniversary with fellowship, faith and family
Carolyn Lowe left Lincoln Beach a half-century ago. But the Beach never left her. Born in her grandmother’s house in the Upper Burrell neighborhood, a segregated community that a real estate entrepreneur founded in 1925, the Black Westmoreland County native excelled in her academic studies from a very young age....
‘Come early’: Pittsburgh police gird for July 4 crowds, road closures
Independence Day revelry will be moved, yet again, out of Downtown Pittsburgh and into the city’s North Shore neighborhood — and city police Thursday said they’re ready for the crowds. Construction at Point State Park is forcing event organizers, as they did last year, to stage the Fourth of July...
In wake of homicide ruling, police release few details about Troy Hill grandmother’s death
Mystery continues to surround the investigation into the death last month of a Troy Hill woman, whose homicide was acknowledged only Thursday by Pittsburgh police. Patricia Kachinko, a lifelong homemaker and grandmother of three, died June 24 from respiratory complications caused by blunt force trauma to the chest, the Allegheny...
Troy Hill grandmother’s death ruled homicide
Authorities have ruled a Troy Hill woman’s death last week was a homicide. Patricia Kachinko, 73, died June 24 in an area hospital, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday. Her cause of death was respiratory complication from blunt force trauma of the chest. Pittsburgh police are investigating, the...
Cops charge woman with firing gun at closing time on South Side
Pittsburgh police have filed charges in two incidents of unruly behavior on the South Side — one involving gunfire and the other physical violence — that punctuated a chaotic few days in the city’s busiest, most heavily patrolled entertainment district. In the first, police said a Forest Hills woman fired...
Storm triggers flash floods in Pittsburgh; 3 inches of rain expected by day’s end
Slow-moving thunderstorms are predicted to drop up to 3 inches of rain and trigger potential flash flooding in parts of several Southwestern Pennsylvania counties, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Tuesday. By 11:30 a.m., first responders were reporting flooding on Allegheny River Boulevard in Pittsburgh; Freeport Road near UPMC St....
Pitcairn shooting victims lauded for roles on Clairton High School football team
Neither Isiah McCarthy or Tyrant Sutton ever led a football huddle as a high school team’s star quarterback or scored a game-winning touchdown to clinch a playoff berth. But the two teens killed in a shooting in Pitcairn were remembered Friday for how they wore the Clairton Bears’ jersey with...
Customs agents nab knockoff Rolexes, sunglasses sent from Middle East to Pittsburgh
Border guards seized more than a dozen knockoff Rolex watches and 12 pairs of counterfeit, designer-imitating sunglasses — with a street value of $573,000 — that arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said Thursday. The suspect shipment, whose contents were labeled “Empty poly bag...
Judge sentences pair to 5-10 years in prison in connection with North Side shooting
Two Brighton Heights men Thursday pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison for their role in a 2022 shooting on Pittsburgh’s North Side, where a barrage of dozens of gunshots killed a 40-year-old man and injured three others. Dayqual Allen, 22, and Andre Allen, 23,...
East Hills woman gets 15-30 years for boyfriend’s killing
Family members from both sides of a fatal domestic dispute appeared in a Pittsburgh court Thursday to speak on behalf of their loved ones. Charlotte Hill, an East Hills woman who fatally shot her boyfriend in 2023 after a fight, has always been a kind, honest, and empathetic mother of...
Allegheny County, McCandless settle jail use-of-force lawsuit for $50K
A North Hills man who an Allegheny County Jail corrections officer taunted while shocking him with a Taser last year will receive $50,000 in a settlement of his federal civil rights lawsuit, officials said Tuesday. “That feels good baby,” the lawsuit claims a corrections officer said to plaintiff Brian Estep,...
Heat dents attendance at Westmoreland air show, but not the thrills
Nine Royal Canadian Air Force pilots wowed crowds Sunday when they shot and twirled their Snowbirds through the air during the Shop ‘n Save Westmoreland International Airshow 2025. Aerobatics aficionados pointed fingers — and cellphone cameras — toward the sun as members of the U.S. Military Academy dramatically parachuted, with...
Royal Canadian Air Force’s Snowbirds dazzle Westmoreland air show crowd
Craig Monstrola sat in the shade beneath a military plane’s 95-foot wingspan — and watched a bit of history unfold on a seemingly unending stretch of tarmac. Monstrola was anxious to catch the Royal Canadian Air Force make its Snowbirds pirouette in the sky Saturday above Arnold Palmer Regional Airport...
Man in critical condition after being shot in the head in Lincoln-Lemington
A man was hospitalized in critical condition early Saturday after being shot in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood, authorities said. Pittsburgh police were dispatched to the 7000 block of Churchland Street shortly before 1:30 a.m. for reports of gunfire, a police spokeswoman said. Police found a man in the driver’s seat of...
1 shot, another injured after falling in Wilkinsburg shooting
Two people were treated at local hospitals late Friday after a shooting in Wilkinsburg. County dispatchers sent police to the 800 block of Wallace Avenue around 10:10 p.m. after a report of a shooting, an Allegheny County Police spokesman said. Responding officers found one spent bullet casing on the ground...
Crowds fill Pittsburgh’s Mellon Park to celebrate Juneteenth
Quay Simmons, a Juneteenth vendor sporting a “Strong As A Mother” T-shirt, wasn’t going to let a little rain on Thursday get her down. For the fifth year now, the Pittsburgh native has left her day job driving trucks to haul a booth’s worth of quirky bracelets and colorful purses...
Police: 2-year-old’s drowning death in East Pittsburgh appears accidental
A 2-year-old girl died Thursday afternoon after drowning in an East Pittsburgh pool, police said. Police and first responders were dispatched to a pool in the 500 block of Howard Street shortly after 1 p.m. Kehlani Russell was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital where she later died at 2:22 p.m.,...
Sheriff’s deputies arrest parole, probation violators in Bell Acres
Sheriff’s deputies Thursday arrested a man and a woman, both wanted for violating probation, at a Bell Acres home. Eric Bosh, 43, of Ambridge, was named a fugitive a month ago after he violated his probation for a guilty plea of fleeing a police officer, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Moon...
