Justin Vellucci stories, Page 29
Pittsburgh police, mayor say alert bus driver, parent thwarted potential shooting at Homewood school
An alert bus driver and a concerned parent helped prevent a potential shooting earlier this month at a Homewood high school, Pittsburgh officials said Thursday. Pittsburgh police responded to Westinghouse Academy on North Murtland Street around 2:30 p.m. Sept. 15 after the driver and parent told Pittsburgh Public Schools police...
2-year-old dies after being struck by vehicle in Penn Hills driveway
A 2-year-old girl died Thursday morning after being struck by a vehicle in Penn Hills. Allegheny County Police said a person they identified as a parent was leaving their home in the 100 block of Lynwood Drive around 8 a.m. when they struck the child at the end of a...
Review board votes to investigate Pittsburgh police’s use of force during Downtown arrest captured on video
Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board voted Tuesday night to launch an investigation into whether Pittsburgh police officers used excessive force when arresting a Garfield man Downtown last month. Pittsburgh police arrested Jashon Martin, 32, around 8:30 p.m. Aug. 25 in the Smithfield Street corridor near Mellon Square Park on multiple...
Delaware man accused of stabbing woman in North Hills arraigned in Allegheny County Court
A Delaware man is accused of breaking into the North Hills home of his ex-girlfriend’s parents this summer and trying to kill her with a knife. Allen Cephas Foote, 50, of Wilmington, Del., was arraigned Tuesday morning in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in connection with the case, court records...
Pittsburgh woman accused of stealing more than $800K from Castle Shannon learning center
The head of a Castle Shannon learning center is accused of stealing more than $800,000 from the organization’s coffers. Sammi Jo Whittaker, 36, of Beechview, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of forgery, theft by unlawful taking, access device fraud, receiving stolen property, dealing in the proceeds of illegal activity, unlawful...
TSA confiscates 2nd gun in 3 days at Pittsburgh International Airport
Security officials at Pittsburgh International Airport on Tuesday morning seized their second gun in three days. Transportation Security Administration officials stopped a Troy, Bradford County, woman from bringing a loaded, .380-caliber handgun that was in her backpack onto her flight Tuesday, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. TSA officials previously had...
Black lung: Government, advocates eye new federal silica-dust standard to stem resurgence among coal miners
...
Black lung: Advocates eye new federal silica-dust standard to stem resurgence among coal minersVideo
Mark Rankin left the coal mines, but the coal mines haven’t left Mark Rankin. Stocky and broad shouldered, the retired Uniontown-area coal miner trekked to a Washington County health clinic to see if recent coughing and tightness in his chest could be black lung. Rankin worked for years stripping coal...
Police charge pet owner for killing dog she left tied to a door after moving out of Hill District apartment
A Hill District woman is accused of tying her dog to an apartment door and leaving it behind this spring when she moved out of the unit, leading the dog to starve to death. Talazia Monique Johnson, 22, of Bedford Dwellings, told police she lost her job in April and...
Pittsburgh man in fake cop uniform had knife when he went to courthouse to harass judge, police say
A Pittsburgh man is accused of going into Allegheny County Courthouse while wearing a fake police uniform and carrying a knife to harass a Common Pleas judge. Christopher Hall, 29, of the Hill District, tried to enter Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski’s courtroom around 10:40 a.m. Tuesday dressed in a...
Serra Catholic officials describe student killed in van crash as ‘beating heart of her class’Video
The morning unfolded in chaos. When Serra Catholic High School Principal Bob Childs heard that a school van carrying four of his students to the McKeesport school had crashed around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, he immediately went to the scene. By the time he arrived near Mansfield Bridge in Dravosburg, paramedics...
Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Class of 2028 will be last to receive Pittsburgh Promise scholarships
Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Class of 2028 will be the final group of students to receive Pittsburgh Promise scholarships, the nonprofit behind the scholarships said in a letter to district parents. Saleem Ghubril, executive director of The Pittsburgh Promise, said he is confident that the nonprofit will be able to complete...
McKeesport Catholic school community gathers to mourn death of 15-year-old student
Small but meaningful details stole the spotlight as the Serra Catholic High School community gathered on a football field Thursday night to mourn one of their own. • Fingers gently cupped around hand-held candles, their orange, sometimes-flickering glow cast defiantly against the dark-blue cover of dusk. • The way the...
Family of McKeesport man who died in Allegheny County Jail files wrongful death lawsuit
A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court claims Allegheny County Jail officials didn’t provide a wheezing inmate who had chronic asthma with his inhaler for up to 30 days. Paul C. Allen, a McKeesport barber and father of three who was supposed to use his inhaler eight times a day,...
Vigil planned for Serra Catholic student killed in Dravosburg crash
Friends, classmates and others plan to gather at McKeesport’s Serra Catholic High School on Thursday night to honor the life and mourn the death of Samantha Lee Kalkbrenner. Kalkbrenner, 15, a Serra Catholic student from Dravosburg, was killed Wednesday after the school van she was riding in crashed, authorities said....
Teen killed in Pittsburgh’s Allentown linked to earlier Braddock double homicide, police say
The teen killed Tuesday in a Pittsburgh shooting was linked to an Aug. 27 shooting in Braddock that claimed the lives of two Woodland Hills High School seniors, authorities confirmed Thursday. Pittsburgh police and Allegheny County Police said the teen was present at the earlier shooting in Braddock, but stopped...
Teen jailed after ransacking North Side house, stabbing resident twice in the neck
A teenager remained in Allegheny County Jail on Wednesday after, police said, he ransacked a North Side home in search of a gun and twice stabbed the resident before leaving only with a baseball cap. Isreal Moseby, 17, whose home address was not listed in court records, approached and talked...
Allegheny County Jail inmate died of drug poisoning, medical examiner says
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday that drug poisoning killed the Dormont man who died at the county jail in May. Tim Manino, 60, died May 25 due to the combined poisoning of fentanyl, promethazine, hydroxyzine and para-flurofentanyl, the medical examiner’s office said. The death was ruled an...
North Side woman who fatally stabbed husband, hid body gets 11½ to 23 months in prisonVideo
A Brighton Heights woman who fatally stabbed her husband and then wrapped his body in garbage bags and duct tape in 2020 was sentenced Monday to 11½ to 23 months in prison followed by three years of probation. In June, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski found Janet...
Punk-metal trio Melvins steal spotlight with crowd favorites at McKees Rocks’ Roxian Theatre
If you like a live band’s thunderous refrains to slug you in the gut, Melvins punched your ticket Friday night. The punk-metal trio wasn’t headlining the three-band bill this weekend at McKees Rocks’ Roxian Theatre. But, far and away, the men known as Melvins stole the show — blasting out...
Authorities identify Allegheny County Jail inmate who died this week
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the jail inmate who died at a local hospital Wednesday as Beaver County resident Zachary J. Sahm. Sahm, 27, of Glasgow, was taken to Allegheny County Jail on Saturday on a bench warrant and detainer charge from outside Allegheny County, Warden Orlando Harper...
McKeesport homicide suspect arrested in Larimer, officials say
A Pittsburgh man suspected in a deadly McKeesport shooting last year has been arrested, authorities said Wednesday. Detectives from the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office arrested Vernon Eutsey, 27, of Hazelwood, in the 600 block of Paulson Avenue in the city’s Larimer neighborhood, spokesman Mike Manko said. Eutsey has been a...
Allegheny County Jail inmate dies at local hospital
A man incarcerated at Allegheny County Jail died Wednesday morning at a local hospital, Warden Orlando Harper announced. That led one Jail Oversight Board member to demand drastic changes at the jail before more inmates die. The 27-year-old man, who county officials did not name, was taken to the Downtown...
Bridgeville man died in Allegheny County Jail of brain hemorrhage, officials say
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled a Bridgeville man’s May death at Allegheny County Jail an accident. James Washington, 42, died from a brain hemorrhage, the medical examiner’s office said. Washington was being processed into the jail around 9:30 a.m. May 7 when he became unresponsive, the medical examiner’s...
Police chief leaving Allegheny Township for Lancaster County post
Allegheny Township’s police chief is headed to Eastern Pennsylvania. Chief Duane Fisher, who succeeded longtime Chief John Fontaine in 2018, was named police chief Monday night in Manheim Township, a Lancaster County community of 44,000 residents. Fisher, who grew up and attended college in York County’s Susquehanna Valley, is set...
