Justin Vellucci stories, Page 9

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...