Police charge man in Downtown Pittsburgh armed carjacking, gunpoint robberies at The Waterfront; victim tells her story

Laura Stuart has dedicated her life to helping others.

One night last week , when a stranger carjacked her in a Downtown Pittsburgh parking garage, she felt someone might have been watching out for her, too.

Stuart walked into the garage at 320 Smithfield St. after attending a Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council networking event at Emerald City, a shared work and event space.

The New Castle-area native, who worked in children’s therapy and taught art in Lawrence and Mercer counties before moving to Pittsburgh a decade ago, said she never saw Michael Paul Lipovsik III following her on March 14.

Around 7:40 p.m. that night, she sat down in the driver’s seat of her 2018 Honda Fit — “a little white hatchback,” she said — and started fiddling with a cellphone cord.

“I turned around and he was there with the gun in my face,” said Stuart, 53, a Pittsburgh resident who works at a Carnegie-based arts studio for intellectually disabled adults. “And he immediately started making threats.”

Stuart later told police Lipovsik, 25, of Pittsburgh’s Chartiers City neighborhood, pointed a black-and-pink Ruger pistol at her head through the driver’s side window and told her to get into the passenger seat, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

Lipovsik got in the car, gun still in hand, police said.

“Don’t do anything or I will shoot you,” Lipovsik told Stuart, according to the complaint.

When Stuart told the stranger, who appeared intoxicated, that she didn’t carry cash, Lipovsik said he’d drive her to an ATM.

“He’s got a gun on me,” Stuart told TribLive. “I was, like, ‘If I don’t do this, is he going to shoot me?’ When you have a gun in your face, you don’t know what to do.”

Lipovsik backed out of the lower-level parking spot and started driving erratically — hitting walls multiple times and banging up Stuart’s car, police said.

At one point, Lipovsik crashed the Honda’s passenger side so hard into a garage guardrail that the door later wouldn’t open, Stuart told TribLive.

As they exited the parking garage, Stuart told TribLive she locked eyes with an on-duty security guard. But she didn’t call for help because she said she feared Lipovsik would kill her.

“All I could do was look at the guard in terror,” she said.

After maneuvering through Downtown, Lipovsik drove across the Monongahela River into the South Side.

Stuart feared for her life.

“I was panicking,” Stuart said. “I couldn’t even think. I literally pleaded for my life. ‘Listen, I’m a good person. I help people. You can’t kill me.’ Then, I just tried to reel it in.”

Police said that, as Lipovsik drove, he kept his black-and-pink gun pressed against Stuart’s leg.

“I won’t kill you if you cooperate,’” said Lipovsik, according to Stuart.

“I’ll give you money — but you have to let me go,” Stuart told TribLive she replied.

After nearly 20 minutes, Lipovsik pulled up the Honda to a First National Bank ATM on East Carson Street, police said.

Stuart walked up to it, Lipovsik alongside her, the gun concealed in his coat pocket, according to the complaint.

Stuart told police that she withdrew $300, the maximum amount allowed, and handed it over. (There was a processing fee of $3.95 because it wasn’t her bank, Stuart later laughed.)

Then, Lipovsik ran away, police said. Stuart called 911.

“When he ran off, at first I couldn’t believe it,” Stuart told TribLive. “When he ran off, all I could think about was, ‘Is this real? Is he really gone?’ I waited ‘til he was out of sight — and I was so incredibly thankful.”

Police said that the next day, Lipovsik robbed multiple stores at gunpoint in The Waterfront, which straddles Homestead, West Homestead and Munhall.

At 10:53 a.m. March 15, he entered a Mattress Firm shop, police said. After talking briefly with a salesperson, he pulled out a black-and-pink gun and demanded money, the witness told police.

Lipovsik threatened to shoot the employee at least four times, but left when he realized the store had no cash, police said.

Moments later, Lipovsik entered a Scrubs & Beyond uniform store next door where he asked an employee about job openings, then abruptly pulled out a gun, police said.

The staffer opened the cash register and handed over $137, according to a criminal complaint.

Lipovsik demanded the employees’ cellphones and told them to order him an Uber ride, police said. When they refused, the complaint said, Lipovsik ran.

Stuart, like many, learned of police’s search for Lipovsik in connection with The Waterfront robberies while watching the TV news. She recognized Lipovsik’s mugshot, though Stuart said he looked younger and more clean-cut in the early images.

For her, she said the black-and-pink gun gave it away.

On Tuesday, police arrested Lipovsik after, they said, he stole a vehicle left running in the 600 block of Penn Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Once at Allegheny County Police headquarters, he admitted to the Downtown carjacking involving Stuart, the robbery at the ATM and to carrying the black-and-pink Ruger, police said.

A co-worker told Stuart on Tuesday that police had apprehended Lipovsik.

“I was extremely relieved,” Stuart said. “I didn’t want to go anywhere — because, you know, he was out there. And I’m not a fearful person!”

Pittsburgh police charged Lipovsik Wednesday with kidnapping, robbery, robbery of a motor vehicle, two firearms counts, making terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, theft and criminal mischief.

A preliminary hearing date has not been set in the carjacking case.

Allegheny County Police filed 15 charges against Lipovsik in connection with The Waterfront crimes, six of them felonies, including multiple counts of robbery, making terroristic threats, and simple assault.

Lipovsik was arraigned Wednesday and taken to the Allegheny County Jail. His preliminary hearing in The Waterfront case is March 27.