Slain Pittsburgh police Officer Calvin Hall’s legacy of service is being kept alive by his colleagues.
“We felt it was important that we live after his motto,” said Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert. “We wanted to do something.”
That something was a blood drive Wednesday during the department’s wellness fair at police headquarters on the North Side. The fair already was part of the departmental schedule, but Schubert added a blood drive in Hall’s honor.
The 36-year-old Hall was shot July 14 in Homewood and died three days later. He was off-duty when he was shot, but police have said he was acting “under the color of the law” when he tried to calm an argument on Monticello Street the night he was shot.
A Pittsburgh man has been charged in the killing. The criminal complaint against the suspect, Christian Bey, 30, of Pittsburgh, is sealed and authorities have said nothing more about the case.
As police officers rallied around Hall in the hospital after the shooting, many of them wanted to give blood.
On Wednesday, and through the month of August, the department is encouraging people to donate blood in Hall’s honor.
About 40 police officers and others who work in the support staff of the department gave blood outside the police headquarters, where a bus from Vitalant, a blood bank with locations in Pittsburgh, was parked.
Donors included Schubert, along with Deputy Chief Thomas Stangrecki, who both gave amid a flurry of video cameras as they worked to spread the word about the drive.
Donating fits in with the duty of public service that Hall lived by, Schubert said.
“There’s a lot of people in this world who do a lot of good things and he was one of them,” Schubert said. “Thirty six years of age and gone. He gave a lot in that 36 years and it’s our job to make sure we don’t let his legacy slip away.”
Those wishing to give blood in Hall’s memory need only mention his name when they give or use the group code Z0021100.
To schedule a donation, call 412-209-7000 or visit https://www.vitalant.org/officerhall
