Justin Vellucci stories, Page 16
Morning Roundup: Route 51 detours begin as crews raze Pittsburgh bridge
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Friday, Aug. 2: Route 51 detours begin Demolition work started late Thursday on a poorly rated bridge in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood. Part of Route 51, also known as Saw Mill Run Boulevard, closed as crews began work to...
Zappala condemns antisemitic graffiti in Squirrel Hill, says vandals committed possible hate crime
Vandals “crossed the line” by spray-painting a red triangle on a religious building in Pittsburgh’s center of Jewish life earlier this week and might be subject to federal prosecution for a hate crime, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. said Thursday. The inverted red triangle — which was...
Pittsburgher Michael Grady, Team USA net Olympic gold in men’s rowing
A Central Catholic alum won Olympic gold Thursday morning and made history for Team USA. Michael Grady, a graduate of the Pittsburgh-based private high school, and the U.S. rowing team took first place in the men’s four final event at the Paris Olympics. It’s the first time Americans have taken...
Swissvale woman sentenced to 6 years probation for yearslong sexual relationship with teen
A judge on Tuesday sentenced a Pittsburgh-area therapist to probation for having a yearslong sexual relationship with a boy starting when he was 14. Rachel Witkowski, 43, of Swissvale pleaded guilty to three of the 11 charges against her — statutory sexual assault by a person 11 or more years...
Morning Roundup: South Side patrol figures; road work projects to impact traffic
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Monday, July 18: Latest South Side patrol figures released Pittsburgh police officers on the bureau’s South Side Entertainment Patrol made seven arrests along East Carson Street over the weekend. The special patrol was launched last summer to tamp down...
FBI: Trump shooter shopped on gun websites using aliases, encrypted email
The 20-year-old Bethel Park man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Butler County political rally used foreign-based encrypted email accounts and aliases to make more than 25 purchases on firearms websites and buy six chemical precursors online since spring 2023, the FBI said Monday. Authorities said...
Morning Roundup: Driver injured in Whitehall crash
Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Monday, July 29: Driver injured in Whitehall crash A driver was injured in a two-vehicle crash Sunday afternoon on Route 51 in Pittsburgh’s South Hills neighborhood. First responders, including six firefighters, were dispatched to the scene at 4:04 p.m.,...
Beaver County SWAT details communication breakdown during attempted assassination of Trump
A Beaver County SWAT sniper said his team had no contact July 13 with former President Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail before he spotted would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks scoping out a building with a range finder near the Butler County fairgrounds where the 20-year-old Bethel Park man later fired...
Butler County’s first-ever West Fest celebrates those ‘pretending to be cowboys for a day’
For Doug Sprankle, those familiar items that symbolize the American West — cowboy hats and leather boots, horses and quick-draw competitions — always have been loaded with deeper meaning. “My dad always had horses, as did his father before him — we just enjoy that sense of freedom,” Sprankle said...
Coroner identifies victim of 2-vehicle crash on Canonsburg’s First Street
The Washington County Coroner’s Office identified the driver killed Sunday afternoon in a two-vehicle crash in Canonsburg as Joyce Gray, 58, of Washington, Pa. Coroner Tim Warco said first responders transported Gray to Canonsburg Hospital after the crash at 1:30 p.m. in the 1100 block of First Street, near the...
TSA officers arrest traveler with revolver in a backpack at Pittsburgh International Airport
A West Virginia woman was arrested Sunday after she tried to fly out of Pittsburgh International Airport with a revolver in her backpack, authorities said. Transportation Security Administration officials spotted the gun at the Findlay airport’s main security checkpoint shortly before 10:45 a.m. Allegheny County Police said Amber Brooks, 33,...
No injuries reported in Springdale house fire
A fire tore through a Springdale home Sunday morning, causing no injuries but gutting much of the residence. Emergency crews were dispatched to the 300 block of Murtland Street at around 10:30 a.m. No injuries were reported. A member of Allegheny County Fire Marshall’s investigative team remained at the scene...
Police arrest man in Versailles stabbing rampage that left 1 dead, 2 hurt
After drinking tequila and smoking marijuana, an out-of-control Washington County man tore through a Mon Valley duplex Thursday night, killing one man, attempting to stab another and forcing a woman into a headlock before apologizing and fleeing the scene with a dog, police said. Allegheny County Police on Friday charged...
Pittsburgh police wound man in exchange of gunfire while responding to domestic dispute
A veteran Pittsburgh police officer shot and wounded a man Tuesday morning in the city’s Garfield neighborhood. Authorities said the officer was responding to a domestic disturbance in the 4900 block of Kincaid Street when the 20-year-old suspect began shooting. The man fired multiple rounds at the officer, said Allegheny...
Authorities ID man killed by Churchill police in front of his Forest Hills home
Details emerged Tuesday about the man that a Churchill police officer fatally shot last week outside his Forest Hills home. Police said Gregory Carlson, 48 was armed when they encountered him around 9:20 p.m. Thursday night outside his house in the 200 block of Glasgow Road. Officers from Forest Hills,...
What we know: Pa. AG Henry calls for assault-weapons ban
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry on Friday called on both state and federal legislators to create or reinstate assault-weapons bans, and stressed more needs to be done to address American politicians’ “collective indifference to addressing this issue.” Former President Donald Trump, who a gunman tried to assassinate at Butler County...
Police remain mum about man killed by Churchill cop in Forest Hills
A Churchill police officer shot and killed an armed man Thursday night outside a Forest Hills home, but details about the incident remained sparse Friday as officials refused to divulge more information. The 48-year-old man, who police did not name, died overnight, according to Allegheny County Police. Officials and police...
Butler Township official describes how small-town cops tried to thwart Trump shooter
As a House committee took steps Wednesday to grill the Secret Service director about her beleaguered agency’s actions surrounding the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, a local official in Butler County described how two small-town police officers tried unsuccessfully to thwart the gunman. The details from Butler Township’s manager emerged...
‘Kind of a part of history’: Crawford County man captures cellphone video of Trump shooting
Something didn’t feel right to Mike DiFrischia. The business owner and registered Republican had attended rallies twice previously for former President Donald Trump. But something seemed off, he said, when he saw a teenage boy “with the look of panic on his face” dart through the Butler Farm Show fairground...
Multistate forgery ring suspects head to trial in Allegheny County bank thefts
Early this year, police broke up what they said was a multistate crime ring of document forgers and identity thieves who swindled thousands of dollars from personal bank accounts in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Kentucky. Four thieves hailing from New York, Indiana and Delaware drove a rented car from bank...
Lawsuit: Penn Hills hookah bar owners’ negligence created ‘public nuisance’
The parents of a 28-year-old woman killed in a shooting at a Penn Hills hookah bar sued the owner of the property Thursday, claiming they should have known the bar was “a public nuisance” prone to gun violence. Two or more people fired seven to 10 gunshots at Ballers Hookah...
2 window washers rescued from scaffolding on Pittsburgh skyscraper
Two window washers stranded on scaffolding Friday in Downtown Pittsburgh were rescued by firefighters and EMS workers, officials said. The workers stranded on the side of the BNY Tower skyscraper on Ross Street between the seventh and eighth floors, shortly after 11 a.m., when their scaffolding lost power. Both men...
Convicted killer of Swissvale mom and young daughter refuses to leave jail cell for sentencing
Kareef Easington didn’t want to face justice, but there was no escaping it. Convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting death last year of a Swissvale woman and her 7-year-old daughter, Easington refused to leave his jail cell Thursday to attend his sentencing — and face his...
Violent incidents in Downtown Pittsburgh prompt police to bolster presence
On a Thursday afternoon last month, a summer intern from Pittsburgh’s suburbs was walking on Downtown’s Smithfield Street when she was savagely attacked. Her assailant punched her twice in the head, dragged her into the street by her hair and broke her nose by punching and kicking her in the...
Judge gives Etna mom probation in infant son’s drowning death
A judge on Monday sentenced an Etna woman to probation in the drowning death last year of her 1-year-old son in a backyard pool. Brittany Garrison, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter, court records show. Prosecutors dropped charges of endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly...
