Justin Vellucci stories, Page 27
1 man dead, another in custody after North Versailles shooting
A man is in custody after a fatal shooting Thursday afternoon in North Versailles, authorities said. North Versailles police and EMS responded to the 600 block of Della Drive at about 1:15 p.m. In an apartment, they found a man, who they did not name, suffering from gunshot wounds, Allegheny...
Police say North Side man confessed to killing former neighbor
It took three tries this week for Joshua James Short to kill his former neighbor, Pittsburgh police said. The 21-year-old North Side man tried breaking into Joseph Sees Jr.’s Manchester home at about 1 a.m. Saturday, Short told police in what they called a full confession to the murder. When...
Pro-Palestine graffiti in Squirrel Hill called ‘despicable’
Pro-Palestine graffiti was found Thursday morning at multiple Squirrel Hill locations, including a wall outside Allderdice High School and on yard signs near a Jewish private school. Officials said they don’t know who spray-painted “Free Palestine” on a brick wall at Allderdice or changed a yard sign reading “I Stand...
Pittsburgh teen pleads guilty to 3rd-degree murder in killing of Central Catholic student
Timothy Whitfield had nothing to say. The Pittsburgh teen accepted a plea deal Wednesday morning for murdering Central Catholic High School student Jafar Brooks, then 15, almost three years ago outside a Penn Hills apartment complex. Whitfield, now 19, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery and conspiracy with a series...
Bus crash on Homestead Grays Bridge sends at least 7 to area hospitals
At least seven passengers were hospitalized after a Tuesday afternoon crash involving a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus on East Eighth Avenue in Homestead, near The Waterfront development and the foot of the Homestead Grays Bridge. The crash happened on the Homestead side of the Monongahela River span, which connects Pittsburgh...
TSA confiscates record 39th gun at Pittsburgh International Airport this year
Transportation Security Administration officers stopped a traveler with a loaded handgun at a Pittsburgh International Airport checkpoint over the weekend, bringing the total number of guns confiscated there so far this year to 39, the agency said. The previous Pittsburgh record of 35 guns caught in a year was set...
Ross woman gets prison sentence for fatal hit-and-run
A Ross woman is headed to prison for fatally striking a woman with an SUV and then fleeing the scene after drinking at a nearby bar in January. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kelly Bigley on Monday sentenced Erin Lee Petroski, 40, to three to six years in prison in...
Rebuilding Tree of Life synagogue 5 years after attack
A path of light. For five years, they waded through tides of healing and commemoration. A monthslong trial that was punctuated with a death sentence and reopened old wounds. Hundreds of Shabbat services led in borrowed homes. After it all, a path of light — a key feature of the...
Dropped cellphone leads to arrest in McKeesport killing
A Mon Valley teen dropped his iPhone after fatally shooting a 47-year-old man this March — and that, combined with surveillance footage of the crime, led to his arrest this week, Allegheny County Police said. Sanchez Spence, 18, of McKeesport, remained in Allegheny County Jail on Friday after being charged...
2 teens charged in shooting of 4 near Homewood’s Westinghouse Academy
Two teens are facing charges in connection with a Valentine’s Day shooting that left four people shot near Westinghouse Academy in Homewood, city officials said Thursday. Police Chief Larry Scirotto and Mayor Ed Gainey touted the arrests as proof that relationships have improved between police and residents, leading to arrests...
Former Squirrel Hill man seeks information, closure in Israel about kidnapped nephews
Ziv Gome’s family wakes up every morning in the Israeli resort city of Eilat and waits. It’s been 10 days since Hamas militants violently kidnapped Gome’s two nephews, ages 12 and 16, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, an Israeli farming community about a mile from the Gaza border. Gome, a former...
Passenger who died in Parkway East crash had overdosed, medical examiner says
A Latrobe man killed last month in a car crash on the Parkway East died from a drug overdose, officials said. Michael Zappone, 47, died just after 11 p.m. Sept. 4 from the combined effects of fentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl and ethanol, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office announced last week. They...
Local noise-rock trio Mirakler steals spotlight in 3-band bill
Talk about cutting to the chase. Pittsburgh noise-rock trio Mirakler kicked off a blistering, 22-minute set Monday night at The Government Center on the North Side with a raucous take on its bonafide crowd-pleaser: the vicious “Instant Drugs.” When played live, the song erupts around its edges and borders on...
Man committed suicide with gun he sneaked into VA hospital in O’Hara, officials say
A Jefferson Hills man sneaked a gun last week into a Pittsburgh-area Veterans Affairs hospital and used the weapon to kill himself, county officials have confirmed. VA officials said they are investigating the incident but declined further comment. First responders found William G. Grant, 73, unresponsive around 3 p.m. Oct....
Ellis School names Tambi Tyler as next leader, 1st Black woman to hold role
The Ellis School, an independent, all-girls school in Pittsburgh’s East End, will soon be helmed by a new leader. The school’s board of trustees last week named Tambi Tyler, a former English teacher in Iowa whose career trek included school administrator roles in Georgia and Colorado, as its 16th head...
Pittsburgh police commander faces wiretapping allegations
Allegheny County Police confirmed Monday they have launched a criminal investigation into wiretapping allegations against a Pittsburgh police zone commander who temporarily has been removed from his post. Pittsburgh police have placed Zone 2 Cmdr. Matthew Lackner on paid administrative leave “pending the completion of an internal investigation,” police spokeswoman...
Woman heads to trial on charges she abandoned dog at Pittsburgh airport
An Armstrong County woman has been ordered to stand trial on charges that she abandoned her dog at Pittsburgh International Airport this summer. Allison Lyn Gaiser, 44, of East Franklin waived her preliminary hearing Monday morning in front of District Judge Leonard J. Hromyak, court records show. Gaiser, who is...
Robinson couple mourns death of only child a day after her 1st birthday
The first thing Daniel Niebergall noticed was the silence. He and his wife, Cheyenne, stood watch around-the-clock this week on the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville as their only child lay comatose after suffering a grand mal seizure on Oct. 5. Doctors declared...
Israeli Jews with links to Pittsburgh settle into new, wartime routines
Ahmi Ben-Yehudah’s nightmares begin before he falls asleep. The Israeli Jew and former Pittsburgh resident has slumped in his bed the past six nights fiddling with his cellphone, worried that he won’t wake up to respond to a possible late-night text from his son, who is at war. The young...
Swissvale therapist accused of having sexual relationship with teen ordered to stand trial
A Pittsburgh-area therapist was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on charges accusing her of having a yearslong sexual relationship with a boy starting when he was 14, but three of the most serious charges against her were thrown out. Rachel Witkowski, 42, of Swissvale, waived her preliminary hearing Wednesday in...
Pittsburgh man pleads guilty to killing Oliver Citywide student
A Pittsburgh man pleaded guilty Wednesday to third-degree murder in connection with last year’s fatal shooting of an Oliver Citywide Academy student at the North Side school. Eugene Watson, 19, of Crafton Heights, also pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit third-degree murder and two firearms charges. Watson, 17 at...
Environmental groups claim victory in EPA ruling on U.S. Steel plant in Clairton
Government regulators sided with environmental advocates, in part, when they ruled recently that a U.S. Steel plant in the Mon Valley might be violating clean-air laws under a current permit that restricts its emissions. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delivered a split decision last month over petitions by four...
TSA stops 35th gun at Pittsburgh airport, tying single-year record
Transportation Security Administration officers last weekend seized the fifth gun in seven days at Pittsburgh International Airport, bringing the total number of guns confiscated this year to 35. Saturday’s gun catch ties Pittsburgh’s all-time record number of guns seized in a year, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. The 35-gun total...
Family seeks answers in death of Wilkinsburg teen on Parkway East ramp
Delmar “Delly” Greer wants answers. His 19-year-old son, Delmar Greer Jr., was struck by a car and killed on April 29 on a Parkway East off-ramp as he walked home from his car, which had broken down nearby on the highway, according to family members. State police are investigating but...
2 teens ordered to stand trial in Stanton Heights slaying
Two teens were ordered Friday to stand trial on charges that they conspired to set up and then fatally shoot a 21-year-old man in Pittsburgh late last year. Jared Goodwine was murdered late Nov. 6, 2022, in the 900 block of Millerdale Street in Stanton Heights, according to a criminal...
