Justin Vellucci stories, Page 21
Authorities ID West End Bridge fatal crash victim
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the motorist killed Saturday in a three-vehicle crash on the West End Bridge as Eonna Devonna Lea Page, 25, of Pittsburgh. City police, firefighters and EMS were dispatched to the bridge, which connect Pittsburgh’s West End with its North Side neighborhoods, at 2:35...
Police release footage of suspect in reported Oakland rape
Pittsburgh police on Tuesday released video footage of a suspect they believe raped a woman in Oakland on Sunday — and they’re seeking the public’s help to identify him. The suspect, who is seen in black clothing in the surveillance footage, is described as possibly in his 30s, 5-foot-7 and...
‘Such a gift:’ Bishop Zubik leads special Sunday Mass at Plum retirement community
At first glance, the Mass that Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik led Sunday morning at a Plum-based retirement community followed a familiar pattern. Worshippers, seated in a ballroom in pastel-green chairs about 12 rows deep, read from the Old and New Testaments. After Zubik offered a prayer for...
Police seeking public’s help finding suspect after a man shot in Coraopolis
A man was critically injured Saturday afternoon after being shot in Coraopolis, authorities said. The man, who Allegheny County Police did not name, was shot in the 900 block of Pennsylvania Avenue at about noon, spokesman James Madalinsky said. He was taken to a local hospital in critical but stable...
Laptop fire diverts Pittsburgh-bound flight
A laptop fire on Friday afternoon diverted a Pittsburgh-bound Breeze Airways flight from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, N.M., according to the Federal Aviation Authority. Breeze Airways Flight 555 — an Airbus A220-300 plane carrying 88 passengers — landed safely at Albuquerque International Sunport at about 3:30 p.m. Mountain time on...
1 man charged, another dead in Marshall-Shadeland bar shooting
A Swissvale man, still hospitalized Wednesday with at least one gunshot wound to his chest, is charged in a fatal shooting outside a North Side bar. Akil Raheem Tennyson, 31, was thrown out of the 703 Social Club in Pittsburgh’s Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood at about 2 a.m. Saturday because he was...
Snapchat bomb hoaxes prompt early dismissal for 2,000 Woodland Hills, Gateway high school students
Bomb threats delivered through social media — both of them false alarms — prompted educators Wednesday to evacuate more than 2,000 students from Woodland Hills and Gateway high schools. The schools received the anonymous threats on Snapchat. Just before noon, Woodland Hills Superintendent Daniel Castagna dismissed the Churchill-based regional high...
Ross police, state investigate how woman, 82, ended up dead outside personal care home
Ross police and the state Department of Human Services are investigating how an 82-year-old personal care home resident ended up dead outside the facility. Nancy Lee Tyler’s body was found around 11 a.m. Sunday in the 900 block of Forest Avenue near Mt. Assisi Place, a personal care facility on...
Police arrest 2nd suspect in 2023 Stowe shootout with undercover police
Police have arrested a Pittsburgh man in connection with a 2023 shootout in Stowe involving undercover police. He is the second suspect charged in the violent encounter in which dozens of shots were fired but no one was hit. Bruce Harvard, 24, of South Side Slopes, was one of the...
Allegheny County hits U.S. Steel with $1.9M fine over Clairton Coke Works emissions
Allegheny County officials Monday hit North America’s largest coke-manufacturing facility — which is also the county’s top source of air pollution — with a $1.9 million fine for uncontrolled emissions. It’s the third-largest penalty levied against U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works in the past five years. The fines stem from...
Data prompts Pittsburgh police chief to empty stations of overnight desk officers
No one will be manning Pittsburgh’s police precincts overnight any longer under policy changes announced Friday by Chief Larry Scirotto for the 743-officer force. The changes, which have already begun, affect all six zone stations across the city and the new Downtown substation from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m., seven...
Former Pittsburgh police commander charged with spying on officers, recording conversations
A former Pittsburgh police zone commander is charged with spying multiple times on several of his officers, secretly recording up to 75 hours of their conversations. Matthew Lackner, 50, of Mt. Lebanon, was charged Friday by Allegheny County Police with four counts of illegal use of wired or oral communications,...
Baldwin-bred professional jazz guitarist stokes flames of family’s ‘musical royalty’
Shawn Purcell doesn’t remember the precise moment he decided to become a professional musician. He does know that it was during spring 1989, his senior year at Baldwin High School. Purcell had been accepted to the University of Ohio and planned to major in business and pre-law. Then, a switch...
Allegheny County Police charge Monroeville man with criminal homicide in shooting mother of their child
Allegheny County Police have arrested a Monroeville man on charges that he fatally shot the mother of their child in a Baldwin Borough apartment earlier this month. Adelin Itongwa, 22, is being charged with criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of a child in the death of Ramiah Griffin, county...
Fifth gun of ’24 confiscated at Pittsburgh International Airport; Warren County man charged
A Warren County man was arrested Tuesday after, authorities said, he tried to bring a loaded handgun onto his flight at Pittsburgh International Airport. Jeremy Snell, 36, of Warren was charged with a felony count of carrying a firearm without a license after Transportation Security Administration officers found a 9mm...
New Pittsburgh police substation opens Downtown on Wood Street
A new, bigger Pittsburgh police substation opened Downtown on Wednesday, as police and city officials touted the two-story building as key to controlling crime in Pittsburgh’s central business district. A total of 17 Pittsburgh police officers, two sergeants and one lieutenant will operate out of the Wood Street location, police...
Pair charged with torturing man, holding him captive for 10 hours in Penn Hills home
Authorities arrested a woman Tuesday on charges that she and a partner held a man captive for 10 hours in a Penn Hills home, stripped him naked and tortured him. Yolanda Scott, 32, of Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood was taken to the Allegheny County Jail after sheriff’s deputies found her in...
‘The cost of living in this country’: Experts, Pittsburghers reflect on Kansas City shooting
When news broke on Jeff “Mac” McCafferty’s TV about the Kansas City Super Bowl parade shooting, the retired Pittsburgh Public Schools history teacher instantly thought of two things. Pittsburgh. And St. Patrick’s Day. The longtime St. Patrick’s Day Parade chairman has for eight years helped organize the city’s largest annual...
Altoona murder suspect arrested after jumping from Pittsburgh airport garage roof
Allegheny County Police took a homicide suspect from Altoona into custody Wednesday after he suffered serious injuries jumping from the second floor of a Pittsburgh International Airport parking garage. Officers responded around 8 a.m. to a report of a jumper, later identified as Joshua Leyo, 30, police spokesman Jim Madalinsky...
Police charge Hill District couple after finding drugs near children’s medical supplies
Pittsburgh police on Tuesday charged a Hill District couple who they said had hard drugs alongside medical supplies used by at least one of their twin 3-year-old boys. Lorenzo Stanley, 42, and Aniya Macon, 23, the children’s legal guardian, were arrested in the 500 block of Crawford Street. After monitoring...
As Chicago abandons ShotSpotter, Pittsburgh plans to expand use of the controversial technology
Pittsburgh’s police chief says the force will keep using ShotSpotter, the controversial gunfire detection system, despite news this week that Chicago will abandon the technology. In fact, a city councilman told TribLive that Pittsburgh plans to expand ShotSpotter’s use. “The bureau does not have any intention to follow Chicago’s lead,”...
Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Pittsburgh next week to discuss clean water issues
Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to visit Pittsburgh on Tuesday. She is expected to talk about the Biden administration’s work on clean water issues. Harris will be joined by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan. Harris visited Pittsburgh in June 2022 to discuss the administration’s efforts to replace lead...
Pittsburgh teen charged with shooting man taking out trash on South Side
Pittsburgh police on Tuesday arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the shooting earlier this month of a man taking out the trash from a South Side convenience store. Delvon Dobbins of Pittsburgh’s Morningside neighborhood was arrested and taken to jail. Dobbins, who is being prosecuted as an adult, is...
Pittsburgh police watchdog opens probe into woman’s hit-and-run death
A watchdog agency has launched a probe into a woman’s middle-of-the-night encounter last month with Pittsburgh police minutes before she was killed by a hit-and-run driver on the West End Bridge. Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board, told TribLive this week that she opened the inquiry...
‘These new leaders’: 13 Pittsburgh cops promoted during ceremony
More than a dozen Pittsburgh police officers were promoted Friday, including several to some of the force’s highest-ranking posts, during a ceremony in the City-County Building, Downtown. Three commanders took the oath to become assistant chiefs, overseeing the roughly 800-strong Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. The new assistant chiefs — Chris...
