Justin Vellucci stories, Page 13
Man, 70, shot outside Larimer nursing home
A 70-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday after being shot outside a Pittsburgh nursing home. The man was shot in the stomach about 12:35 p.m. outside Corner View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the 6600 block of Frankstown Avenue in the city’s Larimer neighborhood, police said. The victim,...
FBI investigating robbery at Citizens Bank in Penn Hills
The FBI is investigating a bank robbery Tuesday morning in Penn Hills. Police were dispatched about 11:30 a.m. to Citizens Bank at 6125 Saltsburg Road for reports of a robbery. A man was seen running from the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash, Penn Hills police Chief Ronald Como...
Man jailed after bringing flash-bang grenade to Pittsburgh airport, police say
Security at Pittsburgh International Airport Tuesday morning caught a West Virginia man they said was trying to carry a live flash-bang grenade onto a flight. Allegheny County Police said they arrested Zachary Velling, 25, of Morgantown, after the Transportation Security Administration officers found the device in a passenger bag at...
Medical examiner rules July 4 double drowning in Pine as accidental
The drowning deaths of two men in a swimming pool in Pittsburgh’s North Hills this summer were both accidental, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Tuesday. Christopher Gebhardt, 63, of Pine, and William Miller, 57, of Cranberry were found dead in the pool in the 200 block of Whetherburn...
Gainey joins other elected leaders to tout expanded Pittsburgh-area search-and-rescue unit
Had Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge pinned people under the wreckage when it collapsed in 2022, local first responders would have had to wait for a highly specialized search-and-rescue unit from Philadelphia to help. “If anyone was trapped under the rubble of that bridge, they would’ve had to wait 12 hours,”...
Morning Roundup: Multiple victims injured after 2 shootings in Pittsburgh
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Thursday, Nov. 7: 3 injured in shooting in Pittsburgh’s Northview Heights Three people were injured after at least 20 rounds were fired during a shooting early Thursday in Pittsburgh’s Northview Heights neighborhood. Pittsburgh police said they were dispatched to...
World, state reaction to Trump’s ‘stunning political comeback victory’
World leaders early Wednesday congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his return to the White House as news outlets called the 2024 presidential race for the Republican and former president. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country is managing a multi-front war in the Middle East, became one of the first...
Witness ID, cellphone left at crime scene lead to charges in Stowe homicide
A cellphone left near the scene of a fatal shooting in Stowe this weekend, along with a witness, helped lead police to the Pittsburgh man they charged with pulling the trigger. Curtis Horne-Baker, 34, of Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood, remained Monday in the Allegheny County Jail in connection with the shooting...
Weekend thieves targeted 10-12 cars in Dormont
Dormont police say they’re stepping up patrols near Kelton Avenue after reports of 10 to 12 car break-ins there over the weekend. Residents reported the break-ins Saturday and Sunday on and around Delwood, Kelton and Pinehurst avenues, Officer Robert Barnes said Monday. The most common item stolen was loose change....
Pittsburgh police Acting Chief Ragland orders ‘all hands on deck’ for election week
While there’s no indication the final hours of the presidential race will spur unrest in Pittsburgh, city police are prepared for any problems, Acting Chief Christopher Ragland said Monday morning. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police intelligence unit has not seen evidence of any specific, election-related threats, Ragland said during a...
Stabbing in Downtown Pittsburgh leaves man in critical condition
A man was hospitalized in criticial condition late Thursday after being stabbed in Downtown Pittsburgh. The man, who police did not name, was stabbed in the abdomen about 11:30 p.m. in the 700 block of Liberty Avenue after being involved “in some sort of altercation,” Pittsburgh police said. Paramedics rushed...
Audit of Scirotto’s refereeing while Florida police chief raises concerns among officials in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh police Chief Larry Scirotto keeps dribbling his way into controversy over his side hustle as an NCAA basketball referee. Three years ago, he was the subject of an audit about his officiating while running Fort Lauderdale, Fla.’s police department. The auditor alleged that Scirotto was double dipping — being...
Petting zoo, pony rides punctuate annual Fall in the Wall event in Aspinwall
Everyone had different reasons for filling Aspinwall’s Commercial Avenue in picture-perfect autumn weather Saturday, Oct. 12, during the borough’s annual Fall in the Wall celebration. Fox Chapel resident Jodi Linder watched, with a twinkle in her eye, as granddaughter Alanna gazed at a balloon artist plying their trade. Despite being...
DA won’t seek death penalty for man charged in Homewood triple homicide
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office on Monday said it would no longer seek the death penalty for a man charged in a Pittsburgh triple killing. Ronald Steave, 32, had been facing the possibility of capital punishment if found guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend Nandi Fitzgerald, 28; her son, Denzel...
Police charge homeless man with breaking South Side woman’s back, pelvis in rape attempt
Pittsburgh police on Monday charged a homeless man they say broke a woman’s back and pelvis by shoving her to the ground while trying to rape her two months ago in the city’s South Side neighborhood. William Hercules, 27, pushed the woman, who uses a walker, to the ground around...
Man pleads guilty in New Year’s Eve stabbing death on North Side
A Pittsburgh man Monday pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for fatally stabbing his roommate after a New Year’s Eve drinking session escalated into a fight. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Flaherty sentenced Martin Lopez Hernandez, 33, of East Allegheny, to time already served in the Allegheny County Jail —...
Montour Trail stabbing victim was Pa. Liquor Control Enforcement agent
A 44-year-old man found fatally stabbed Monday afternoon along the Montour Trail in Moon was a liquor control enforcement agent with the Pennsylvania State Police. Benjamin Brallier of Coraopolis was pronounced dead at Heritage Valley Sewickley hospital just before 4 p.m. Brallier, who had stab wounds to his back, upper...
Trial opens for man charged with gunning down North Hills honors student
A Pittsburgh man whose homicide trial opened Monday killed a restaurant’s teenage cook just 15 minutes after being thrown out of the Strip District establishment, a prosecutor told jurors. Howard Hawkins, 49, was kicked out of Preeti’s Pitt on Penn Avenue in the Strip District at 8:55 p.m. on Feb....
Jury finds 2 guilty of first-degree murder in 2021 Larimer slaying
A jury Monday found two men guilty of first-degree murder in a 2021 homicide at a Pittsburgh gas station. Michael James and Randall Jones are each facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole for the killing of Robert Agurs. Allegheny County Judge Edward J....
Judge won’t bar death penalty in Pittsburgh triple killing trial
Lawyers for a man accused of a Pittsburgh triple killing have failed to convince a judge that the death penalty should be off the table because of what they say is their client’s intellectual disability. “This case is going to trial — my position did not change,” Allegheny County Common...
Woman dies in Homewood stabbing
A woman was stabbed to death early Monday in Homewood, Pittsburgh police said. Officers were dispatched to the 6800 block of Lyric Street about 5 a.m. for reports of a stabbing. Police said they found a woman stabbed in the chest. Officers rendered aid but the woman died at the...
Driver hospitalized after crash at Lernerville Speedway
A driver Sunday was flown via helicopter to an area hospital after an on-track accident at Butler County’s Lernerville Speedway. Authorities have not released the man’s name or extent of his injuries. Emergency crews were dispatched to the Buffalo Township race track at 2:37 p.m., a Butler County 911 dispatcher...
Trump, Walz scheduled to visit Western Pa. this week as candidates criss-cross battleground states
The Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president is set to visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday — his sixth trip to Pennsylvania as politicians court voters in a swing state some pundits say will tip the scales on who wins the 2024 presidential race. Vice presidential hopeful Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will...
1 dead, 1 injured in Scottdale house fire
A 71-year-old man was killed Saturday afternoon in a residential fire in Scottdale, authorities said. Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson identified the victim as Thomas Zeller. A cause and manner of death have not been reported. Firefighters and first responders were dispatched to a home at 918 Market St., where...
Natrona group celebrates community in park, focuses on the future
Over Bill Godfrey’s right shoulder, crumbling brick row houses line Penn Street, their former tenants all workers who toiled for Natrona’s storied Penn Salt Manufacturing Co. Over his left shoulder, on Federal Street, stood an evenly spaced queue of wooden, one-story cottages built in the 1850s — where Penn Salt...
