Justin Vellucci stories, Page 9
Groups ask Innamorato to explain chief public defender’s firing
Two advocacy groups are seeking a meeting with Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato about the “apparent lack of due process” for Lena Bryan-Henderson, the former chief public defender who was fired last week following a monthlong human resources investigation. Bryan-Henderson, the first Black woman to hold the post, “was not...
Gainey, O’Connor vote as Pittsburgh mayoral primary enters homestretchVideo
Pittsburgh’s Democratic candidates for mayor — incumbent Ed Gainey and challenger Corey O’Connor — cast their votes Tuesday morning in a primary that will likely decide the city’s next leader thanks to the party’s lopsided registration advantage over Republicans. Gainey voted around 10 a.m. at Paulson Recreation Center in Lincoln-Lemington...
Police charge man with buying beer for underage Pirates fan who fell onto field
Authorities Tuesday charged a Mon Valley man with buying beer in April at PNC Park for his 20-year-old friend, Kavan Markwood, who was celebrating a rally by the Pittsburgh Pirates when he fell 21 feet onto the field’s warning track below and suffered severe injuries. Ethan Kirkwood, 21, of Liberty...
FBI, police probe antisemitic flyers, harassment of Jews in Squirrel Hill
Pittsburgh police and the FBI are investigating who distributed antisemitic flyers and harassed Jewish residents over the weekend in Squirrel Hill — the most recent in a growing list of antisemitic incidents in the city. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh said Monday in a statement that members of the...
DA drops attempted homicide charge against man charged in Brookline business district shooting
Prosecutors have dropped an attempted homicide charge against a man arrested for a daylight shooting in a Pittsburgh neighborhood business district, but he will face trial for aggravated assault and a firearms count. Amirre Brown, 20, on Tuesday waived his preliminary hearing in a Downtown Pittsburgh courtroom. Pittsburgh police said...
What is a derecho? Meteorologists weigh label after powerful storms slam Western Pa.
After powerful storms swept through Western Pennsylvania this week, meteorologists hesitated to apply labels — though terms like derecho began to circulate. A derecho is a fast-moving, long-lived windstorm that the National Weather Service says can produce tornado-like damage — but in a single, straight path. To qualify, it must...
Penn Hills man charged with using stolen SUV carrying drugs to ram police vehicle
A Penn Hills man awaiting trial for multiple drug crimes was charged this week with carrying heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and a stolen gun and repeatedly smashing a stolen SUV into a police vehicle while trying to flee. Allegheny County Police on Tuesday arrested Timothy Terry Jr. on 23 criminal charges,...
No flow: The Point’s iconic fountain to stay dry in 2025 amid upgrades
Don’t expect to see the waterworks anytime soon at Point State Park. The majestic fountain that marks the confluence of Pittsburgh’s three iconic rivers won’t be turned on until 2026, due to a bevy of planned upgrades, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said Tuesday. State officials plan...
South Fayette man pleads guilty to filming sex with 14-year-old girl
A South Fayette man has pleaded guilty in federal court to filming himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl, then sending her photos and a video of the encounter. Matthew Trax, 25, used “multiple iPhones” to record sex acts with the teen in November 2023, authorities said. Trax pleaded guilty...
Closed for business: Judge imprisons ‘major player’ in multimillion-dollar stolen goods racket
A Pittsburgh man is headed to federal prison for five years for leading a multimillion-dollar operation that laundered money and resold stolen goods at jacked-up prices through a series of retail stores in the area, prosecutors said Thursday. U.S. District Judge Mark R. Hornak sentenced Durrell Waters, 41, in federal...
DA drops case against retired Pittsburgh cop charged with shooting grandson
Prosecutors Wednesday withdrew all charges against a retired Pittsburgh police sergeant accused of shooting her grandson. Pittsburgh police arrested Virginia Beck, 64 — who retired in 2019 after a nearly four-decade career with the city’s police force — in February on attempted homicide, aggravated assault and other charges. Police said...
Man who fired potshots at Pittsburgh mail carrier gets 10 years in prison
A federal judge Wednesday sentenced a Pittsburgh man with a history of gun convictions to 10 years in prison after he shot at — but did not injure — a mail carrier on the city’s North Side in 2023. Authorities said Martinel Humphries, 30, on Jan. 5, 2023, fired four...
Driver faces trial on charges of being high when he struck man in wheelchair, breaking his neck
A 63-year-old man was high on methamphetamine and driving with a suspended license when he darted his car around a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus in Duquesne last September and struck a man in a wheelchair, breaking his neck, police said. The driver, Nicola Migliori, of Monongahela, had his preliminary hearing...
Former UPMC doc pleads not guilty to trying to kill his wife in Hawaii
A former Pittsburgh doctor Monday pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to kill his wife last month in Hawaii. Police arrested Gerhardt Konig, 46, a former UPMC anesthesiologist who lived in Mt. Lebanon, after authorities say he bludgeoned his wife Arielle’s head with a rock and tried to...
Stomped, stabbed, then a bullet to the head: Pair charged in vicious Pittsburgh slaying
Police have charged two Pittsburgh men with breaking into a Knoxville home in 2022, brutally assaulting the man who lived there and videotaping part of the attack before killing him. Deonte Kidd, 30, of Lincoln-Lemington, and Le’Juane Powell, 31, of Beltzhoover, were charged last week in the death of Victor...
Man killed by Pittsburgh police urged officers to shoot him months earlier
A Hill District man whose February death at the hands of Pittsburgh police remains under investigation had urged officers repeatedly to shoot him during an encounter months earlier, according to a TribLive review of court records. Police shot and killed Maurice Jones, 33, in the Hill District on Feb. 5....
Sewickley’s bus route 14, which PRT has pegged for elimination, fuels the region
On a sunny March afternoon, a blind woman walked up to a bus stop on Sewickley’s Beaver Street, guided as much by her white cane as her spunky 6-year-old daughter. Kong Lee takes Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s bus route 14 several times a week to pick up the youngest of her...
Police charge man in North Fayette teen’s fentanyl death
An Aliquippa man extorted a North Fayette ninth grader for “sexual conduct” last year in exchange for fentanyl, which killed her, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday. Shakeirs Deveye Foster, 28, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the May 14, 2024, death of Mia Pepper, 15. She is identified...
Pittsburgh teen charged with killing friend while they played with guns
A Pittsburgh teen was arrested Thursday after he accidentally killed his friend while the two were playing with guns, authorities said. Khyree Harper, 17, of South Side, was holding a pistol and exchanging gun magazines with Tyrome Gatewood in a Knoxville home around 1 p.m. Thursday, a witness told Pittsburgh...
‘I just tried to kill Ari’: Records detail ex-UPMC doc’s alleged attack on wife in Hawaii
At first, Arielle Konig thought her husband was kidding. They had just taken a selfie — at his suggestion, she said — by the edge of a cliff with a steep drop along a hiking trail in Hawaii. She got dizzy and moved away from the drop. Suddenly, according to...
Stowe driver charged with killing man who argued with passenger in McKees Rocks
Thomas Laron Smith drove his black SUV past a McKees Rocks market three times one night last December before stopping to talk to Floyd Wilson, a 51-year-old man sitting in his wheelchair nearby. Wilson started quarrelling with someone in Smith’s vehicle, but about what was unclear, according to a criminal...
Mystery deepens over ex-UPMC doc accused in Hawaii attack on wife
Gerhardt Konig smiled in the Oct. 5, 2018, Facebook photo as his new bride leaned into his side, holding a bouquet against her white dress. The photogenic couple stood under a garden arbor adorned with white flowers. “Best. Day. Ever.” Konig wrote. On Wednesday, some 6½ years later, authorities in Hawaii...
Jury finds man guilty of 1st-degree murder for killing ex-girlfriend in front of their toddler
An Allegheny County jury only needed about three hours Friday before finding Terrence Washington guilty of first-degree murder in the 2020 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend, Makeida Thompson. The prosecution had lobbied for the verdict, telling the jury that Washington meant to kill the mother of his child during a...
Struggling Pittsburgh Regional Transit proposes fare hike, ‘brutal’ service cuts
Pittsburgh Regional Transit is recommending drastic changes — a 25-cent fare hike and steep, widespread service cuts — to address what it said is a huge budget deficit and insufficient state aid. If ultimately approved by the transit agency’s board, the fare hike would take effect next year. Single-ride fares...
‘This ain’t no setup?’: Slain woman’s texts to accused killer reveal qualms just before her death
Makeida Thompson worried her ex-boyfriend — the father of their 1-year-old son — was setting a trap when he invited her to his grandmother’s Pittsburgh house to clear the air. Thompson and Terrence Washington recently had broken up. Hundreds of text messages they exchanged, read Wednesday by a detective during...
