Justin Vellucci stories, Page 17
Fatal Homestead crash victim identified as Duquesne woman
Authorities on Monday identified the woman killed last week in a multi-vehicle crash in Homestead as Lynn Reynolds, 47, of Duquesne. Doctors at UPMC Mercy hospital pronounced Reynolds dead at 12:37 p.m. on Saturday. No cause or manner of death has been determined yet. At least six people were hospitalized...
‘All hands on deck’: Police gear up for Pittsburgh’s July 4 fireworks
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Rocco Gagliardi, like many area residents, admires the iconic view of Downtown that motorists get when emerging from the inbound Fort Pitt Tunnel. He just doesn’t want motorists watching Independence Day fireworks from there Thursday night. “People like to stop on the bridge to watch; people...
‘We’re not going down without a fight:’ 1 year into Pittsburgh police patrol, tide is turning on South SideVideo
While walking down East Carson Street at 12:52 a.m. June 8 in Pittsburgh’s South Side, city police Sgt. Andrew Robinson spotted a man standing outside a shuttered pizza shop, sifting marijuana into brown rolling papers. As Robinson approached, the man quickly ditched the drugs on a window ledge. The two...
Police arrest parolee in killing of sister’s boyfriend outside Braddock Hills bar
A Washington County parolee remained in jail Friday after, authorities say, he killed his sister’s boyfriend following an argument that ended in the parking lot of a Braddock Hills bar earlier this month. Allegheny County Police said Abdullaah Bin Francken, 23, of North Franklin, fatally shot William Coffey, 24, early...
Colorado company wrongly tickets hundreds who paid to park for PPG arena events
Hundreds of people who attended events last month at PPG Paints Arena and paid hefty fees to park at nearby surface lots were wrongly ticketed through the mail by a Denver-area company. On Thursday, a top executive with the company, Parking Revenue Recovery Services, acknowledged the screw-up and said the...
Woman charged with trying to slip drug-soaked papers to boyfriend in Pittsburgh court
A Stowe woman was jailed Wednesday after, Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies said, they caught her trying to deliver drug-soaked papers to her boyfriend during his court hearing on charges involving the same type of drugs. Alisha Hunt, 28, delivered “an envelope full of paperwork” about 8 a.m. Tuesday to a...
Police arrest third person in June’s pro-Palestine protest at Pitt
A Pittsburgh man has been arrested for storming a barrier and injuring a police officer last month during pro-Palestine protests at the University of Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh Police on Monday arrested Cole Florkewicz, 24, of the city’s Perry South neighborhood, as the third person charged in connection with what...
5 injured in Schenley Park stabbing
Five people were injured in a stabbing Sunday night at a Schenley Park soccer field, Pittsburgh police said. Two men arrived at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, each with stab wounds, shortly before 11 p.m., police said. Paramedics transferred one of the men to a local trauma center in serious but stable...
‘I wanted to meet some Pittsburgh Pirates’: Man charged in yacht theft
An intoxicated man is accused of stealing an 82-foot yacht from a Strip District marina and piloting it about a half-mile down the Allegheny River Friday morning, Pittsburgh police said. Michael Fischer, 38, is accused of breaking into the Lock Wall Marina off 23rd Street Friday morning, then boarding and...
County fines U.S. Steel nearly $80K in latest round of air-pollution penalties
The Allegheny County Health Department on Thursday fined U.S. Steel nearly $80,000 for air pollution the department said its Clairton Coke Works created in the first quarter of 2023. The $79,545 fine includes soaking and pushing violations at the coke works, a 123-year-old plant that sits on 392 acres on...
Tree of Life groundbreaking brings hope for the future amid antisemitism concerns
Audrey Glickman learned about antisemitism at a young age. In the second grade, the third-generation Pittsburgher started walking to B’nai Emunoh, an Orthodox shul a few blocks away in Greenfield’s working-class business district. She studied there for several years, until her bat mitzvah, the Jewish rite of passage into adulthood,...
2 grenades confiscated at Pittsburgh airport checkpoint
Bombs away, indeed. TSA has confirmed that its security officers stopped two passengers on Wednesday from smuggling grenades onto flights leaving Pittsburgh International Airport. TSA intercepted a “smoke grenade” from one traveler’s carry-on bag, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. A more iconic, circular grenade was discovered the same day at...
‘He was in amazing shape’: Central Catholic, cycling community remember Bob Anderson
Robert “Bob” Anderson gave 110% on everything he did. The North Hills man displayed the same passion for teaching physical education at Central Catholic High School as he did for biking in national competitions or just around the trails of Allegheny County’s nine parks. Fiercely dedicated to fitness and a...
Hippie Town dispensary battles with residents, Pittsburgh officials over product legality
Christopher Younger lacked a suit, a tie and a law degree as he strode into Pittsburgh Municipal Court, preparing to represent himself against charges that he illegally sold marijuana at his Pittsburgh vape shops. The 42-year-old Hippie Town store owner sported a white T-shirt and blue sweatpants, his white socks...
Pair threw Garfield woman to street in carjacking, police say
A teenager remained held in jail without bail and his suspected accomplice was awaiting arraignment Tuesday in connection with a 3 a.m. carjacking in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood. The victim was checking email in a car in front of her Broad Street home when Daniel Cain, 18, swung open her car...
New Castle man charged in shooting at McKeesport cookout
A New Castle man is headed to Common Pleas court on charges that he shot a man during an argument at a Memorial Day Weekend family cookout in McKeesport. Allegheny County Police charged Vance Sykes, 30, in the May 26 shooting with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person...
California woman charged with homicide in Shadyside baby’s death
A California woman staying in a Shadyside Airbnb was charged with homicide Sunday in connection with the death of a 6½-week-old Pittsburgh boy. Nicole Virzi, 29, of San Diego, said the boy, identified as Leon Katz, fell from a bouncer seat Saturday night while she was watching him in a...
Medical examiner IDs Pittsburgh man fatally shot on Arlington Avenue
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner on Tuesday identified the man fatally shot in Arlington Heights a day earlier as Shawn Marcus Czeczely. Czeczely, 53, of Pittsburgh, was found unresponsive in the 3000 block of Arlington Avenue at 12:54 a.m. Monday, the medical examiner said. He was pronounced dead at the...
Woman arrested in connection with Pittsburgh man’s 2022 overdose death
A Homestead woman illegally sold oxycodone pills that caused a Pittsburgh man to fatally overdose in 2022 with fentanyl levels in his blood that were gauged as double a lethal dose, authorities say. Sharon Holt, 51, was arrested by Pittsburgh police Thursday on charges including drug delivery resulting in death,...
Ex-Pittsburgh police commander gets probation in wiretapping case
A former Pittsburgh police commander on Friday morning agreed to take 24 months of probation on charges that he stashed body-worn cameras in patrol cars last fall to secretly record more than a half-dozen of his own officers. Matthew Lackner, 50, a Mt. Lebanon resident who led Pittsburgh police’s Zone...
Elder fraud cost Allegheny County residents $8M last year, officials say
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. on Thursday used a video’s release as a springboard to warn residents about elder fraud, which scammed more than 12,000 Allegheny County residents out of nearly $8 million last year. Zappala said his office has prevented an estimated $35 million in elder...
Armed robberies in Pittsburgh’s East End could be connected, police say
Pittsburgh police believe a spate of armed robberies carried out last week appear to be connected. The three crimes occurred over 36 hours on June 7 and June 8 and targeted a restaurant, a fast-food chain and a clothing shop in three different neighborhoods in Pittsburgh’s East End. No arrests...
South Hills native crafts video at center of Pittsburgh’s NFL Draft pitch
Tim Oxenreiter needed just five days to craft a video that packs a whole lot of Pittsburgh into 63 seconds. Book-ended by Acrisure Stadium and the picturesque Point State Park, Oxenreiter’s latest ode to his hometown laid on the local mythology thick as part of the region’s pitch to host...
Tiki boat captain saves capsized kayaker in Allegheny River
Call it three for three. A tiki boat captain rescued a man who couldn’t swim after his kayak capsized last weekend on the Allegheny River — the third such rescue by the Pittsburgh-based cruise company in the past 12 months. A Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh captain saw “someone bobbing in the...
Authorities ID man fatally shot by Brentwood police
Authorities on Thursday identified the man fatally shot a day earlier by a Brentwood police officer as Craig W. McGrath of Pittsburgh. McGrath, 37, was shot multiple times Wednesday in Brentwood. Investigators said that an armed McGrath rammed a police vehicle while driving a stolen car and fought with an...
