Justin Vellucci stories, Page 12
‘Misinterpreted’ text, not bomb threat, led to disruption on Spirit jet at Pittsburgh airport
Allegheny County Police on Thursday removed all passengers from a Spirit jetliner at Pittsburgh International Airport after one traveler “misinterpreted” another’s text message as being about “a possible bomb threat,” the Transportation Security Administration told TribLive. There was no bomb threat, according to TSA and county police. TSA officials and...
Zappala sues over troubled Allegheny County pension fund
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. is suing the county pension board and has asked a judge to force county officials to adequately fund a retirement system slated to run out of money in 15 years. In the 43-page lawsuit, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court’s civil...
Police charge teen with plotting hit from Allegheny County Jail cell
A McKeesport teen awaiting trial for homicide orchestrated a hit on a police informant from an Allegheny County Jail cell, using code words like “lottery numbers” and “taco shells” to instruct another teen to carry out the crime, police said Wednesday. Allegheny County Police have charged both teens — Daemond...
Rep. Mike Kelly’s task force releases final report on Trump assassination attempt in Butler County
A task force led by a Republican congressman from Southwestern Pennsylvania on Tuesday capped a monthslong investigation of the attempted assassination of President-elect Donald Trump at a Butler County campaign rally in July by releasing dozens of recommendations to improve the U.S. Secret Service after widespread criticism of the agency....
Sewickley Heights homeowner plans to rebuild on site of 2023 house explosion
Nearly a year has passed since an explosion leveled a caretaker’s house on John Tippins’ sprawling Sewickley Heights property. But, as the managing director of a Downtown-based private equity group gets ready to rebuild on the Backbone Road site, at least one neighbor still is wondering what happened to the...
FBI arrests Upper St. Clair man accused of trying to join Hezbollah in Lebanon
A 24-year-old former U.S. soldier living in a Pittsburgh suburb has been charged in federal court with lying to the FBI after, authorities said, he flew to the Middle East and attempted to join the terrorist group Hezbollah. Jack Danaher Molloy, 24, of Upper St. Clair traveled to Lebanon in...
October shooting in McKees Rocks claims 2nd life
A McKees Rocks woman who was one of four people shot Oct. 26 in the borough died Sunday, marking the incident’s second fatality. Dominique Smith, 38, was pronounced dead about 11:05 a.m. in an area hospital, the Allegheny County Medical Examiners’ Office said. Smith was shot near Meyers Street and...
Coal, once king in Pennsylvania, leaves behind abandoned mines that pose concerns
Coal mining’s roots in the Pittsburgh area run deeper than the foundations of American democracy. Since the mid-1700s, years before the Declaration of Independence, Pennsylvanians have mined 250,000 acres of land for coal, pulling more than 15 billion tons of the fossil fuel from the earth, according to the state...
A traffic stop in Brentwood raises questions about cops’ use of force
On the night of Oct. 3, Brentwood police pulled over a car on Route 51 because the license plate was partially blocked. When an officer approached the driver, her friend and front-seat passenger, Devin Irwin, held up his iPhone and began recording. The only other person in the car, a...
Woman killed in hit-and-run while crossing Oakland street is identified
Pittsburgh police have found the driver of a vehicle believed to have struck and killed a woman early Thursday in a hit-and-run crash in Oakland. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as Jessie Maroney, 37, of South Park. Police said Maroney was crossing Darragh Street in a...
‘Justice was served’: Killer of off-duty cop slain in Blawnox gets maximum prison time
A judge Thursday sentenced a Pittsburgh man to 20 to 40 years in prison for killing an off-duty Oakdale police officer during a road-rage incident. Kevin McSwiggen, 42, of the city’s Greenfield neighborhood was convicted in July by a jury of third-degree murder in the July 3, 2022, shooting death...
Carrick man indicted for attempted murder of DEA agent
A federal grand jury has indicted a Pittsburgh man on charges of attempted murder and assaulting a federal officer nearly four months after authorities say he fired at least 18 shots at a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who later found a large stash of fentanyl at the man’s home. Drew...
‘I will never forgive you’: Moms of teens killed in North Park crash tear into driver after his guilty plea
Aiden Saber cried Monday in a Pittsburgh courtroom as he apologized for killing two teenage passengers and ruining the lives of their families last December when he crashed his SUV into a tree. “I stand before you today fully aware of my actions and the irreversible pain I have caused,”...
Forever Young: Families of teens killed in North Park crash fight to move on
Twice a week, Ellie Tourney eats lunch on a stone bench near her son’s grave. She doesn’t want her youngest boy to feel like he has been forgotten. Nearly a year has passed since Jonathan Tourney and Taylor Orlowski were killed on Christmas weekend when the speeding SUV they were...
A year later, families of teens killed in North Park crash remain overcome with grief while fighting to move onVideo
Twice a week, Ellie Tourney eats lunch on a stone bench near her son’s grave. She doesn’t want her youngest boy to feel like he has been forgotten. Nearly a year has passed since Jonathan Tourney and Taylor Orlowski were killed on Christmas weekend when the speeding SUV they were...
Braddock man, 52, found fatally shot inside vehicle
A Braddock man was killed early Friday and the suspect who shot him remains at large, authorities says. State police found Henry Freeman, 52, dead inside his vehicle on the 400 block of Library Street in Braddock about 1:45 a.m., state police said. He had been shot several times. Freeman...
Teen accidentally shoots brother in Port Vue home, police say
A teenager late Thursday accidentally shot his younger brother in the leg while showing off a gun to friends in their Port Vue home, authorities say. Allegheny County Police charged Jahwon Glenn, who turned 16 Wednesday, with aggravated assault. He is being prosecuted as an adult. Glenn was arraigned around...
Volunteers offer free Thanksgiving meals to visitors, high-rise residents
Details can get complicated when you’re serving 600 Thanksgiving meals. The ingredients alone are daunting: 30 large turkeys, dozens of 1-gallon cans of yams, 36 bags of stuffing mix, 50 pounds of butter. About 20 volunteers Thursday formed production lines inside Bethel United Methodist Church kitchen in Lower Burrell to...
‘It’s a reunion:’ Greek family, community mark 50 years of Turkey Bowl in Oakmont
Peter Theofilis stalked the sidelines of a touch- football game Thursday and watched a new generation of family and community embrace a Thanksgiving tradition. The inspiration for 12 Pittsburgh-area cousins to stage the first “turkey bowl” game sprouted out of services at a Greek Orthodox church in Oakmont. On Thursday,...
Sweet treats, customized art draw hundreds to Oakmont Christmas event
Kelly Shilala weighed truffles on a scale Saturday afternoon. Bill Hickey sliced fudge. But one of the biggest stars of Oakmont’s Big Hometown Christmas & Parade, which drew hundreds of visitors who packed Allegheny River Boulevard, was clearly Julie Hwostow. Hwostow drew smiles from visitors young and old as she...
‘It’s a lot about family and community.’ Tradition brings crowds to fill A-K Valley streets for Christmas parade
Storm clouds and winter temperatures don’t faze Jamie Ganss. The power of tradition brings the Brackenridge woman every year to the corner of Corbet Street and Third Avenue in Tarentum to watch the Tarentum-Brackenridge Christmas Parade. Her annual ritual to kick off the holidays has generated a deeper meaning since...
Pittsburgh police charge man in Northview Heights homicide
Pittsburgh police are accusing a man of fatally shooting his companion in the back when, investigators say, they opened fire on a group of people earlier this month in the city’s Northview Heights neighborhood. Police on Tuesday arrested Ernest Terry, 18, of Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar and charged him with the death of...
Innamorato touts public safety spending in proposed 2025 budget
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato Wednesday said the $57 million she’s proposing in public safety spending in her 2025 budget would help fund the ongoing modernization of an outdated public safety radio system, ensure there are enough county police to handle emergencies, and roll out a pilot program for civilian...
Police arrest Glassport homicide suspect on PRT bus
A teen remained in jail Tuesday after police charged him with fatally shooting an 18-year-old man at a Glassport bus stop two days earlier. James Martin, 17, of McKeesport fled the shooting scene on a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus but was arrested after the driver told a dispatcher the suspect...
Driver strikes Shaler police vehicle responding to car crash
A driver was hospitalized Monday after striking a Shaler police vehicle en route to a car crash. Shaler police were dispatched about 7 a.m. to Kittanning Street after a car flipped onto its side near the intersection with Badali Drive, Chief Sean Frank said. Firefighters and paramedics extricated the driver,...
