Pittsburgh police arrest 2, seize 4 guns after social media threat against school
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A Pittsburgh man and teen arrested on drug and weapons charges might have been planning a shooting at a Hill District school, authorities said Friday.
A special agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives warned Pittsburgh police on Thursday about social media threats against Pittsburgh Milliones University Preparatory School on Centre Avenue, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
Ten days earlier, a 17-year-old former student believed to be behind those threats appeared on school property “with what appeared to be a firearm in his hand,” the complaint said. Pittsburgh Public Schools police also shared the threats with the ATF, including photographs posted to Instagram that showed numerous guns.
Pittsburgh police said they tracked the 17-year-old suspect to a home in the 2100 block of Rose Street in the city’s Terrace Village.
Police said they saw a man — later identified as Jackiel Young, 20, of the Upper Hill — leave the home and get into the passenger side of a U-Haul box truck. Officers stopped the vehicle and found Young had a pistol, officials said. Police said they also recovered a 50-round drum magazine and tactical light, and the drum magazine was filled to capacity and had one live round in the chamber.
On the ground near Young sat a blue Giant Eagle grocery bag containing “a large amount of marijuana,” marijuana seeds, rolling papers, blunts and empty baggies, the complaint said.
Police also found a backpack containing a fully automatic switch for a Glock handgun, ammunition, gun magazines and marijuana.
Police charged Young with three drug possession offenses and two firearm offenses, court records show. He had not been arraigned as of Friday afternoon.
Young’s attorney was not listed in court records.
Police said they later stopped a car containing the 17-year-old boy and found him with an AK-47 rifle and two pistols. He was arrested and later released to a family member. Police did not identify the juvenile.
Pittsburgh police Chief Larry Scirotto on Friday called officers’ ability to thwart an “ongoing threat” to be “a testament to the great work our law enforcement partners have done.”
“We take these threats very seriously,” he said.
Scirotto also called the 17-year-old suspect, who is being prosecuted as a juvenile, “a serious threat” and expressed concern that the courts released him to family.
Scirotto has been a vocal advocate for reopening Shuman Center, a youth detention facility closed in September 2021 after the state Department of Human Services revoked its license over a history of violations and investigations. Allegheny County’s court system recently signed a contract with Latrobe nonprofit Adelphoi to take over juvenile detention services at the center as soon as January.
Mayor Ed Gainey applauded law enforcement Friday for being “able to interrupt what could have been a major act of violence near one of our schools.”