Zach Blume and Rebekka Schmid thought their VFW post in Tarentum should do something to express support for fallen Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire, wounded Tarentum police Officer Jordan Schrecengost and their families.

So when the idea of holding a spaghetti fundraiser Sunday was settled on, they approached area businesses hoping to secure food for perhaps 120 people.

Those businesses donated nearly twice that.

It has been that way in the month since the deadly ambush shook both neighboring communities to their core while producing an overwhelming display of appreciation.

Neither Blume, quartermaster and past president of Post 5758, nor Schmid, the bar manager there, was surprised.

“The community has been behind and stepping up big to support good people in a tragic time,” said Blume, 37, of Plum.

Schmid, 42, of Tarentum echoed those thoughts: “I don’t think we’re just a small community. We’re more like a family. We’re so close. Everybody knows everybody in Tarentum. Everybody knows everybody in Brackenridge. So when it hit home, it hit home hard.”

Both had met the chief. They also knew Schrecengost as the Tarentum officer who would stop by the post and offer assistance if an alarm went off when a door would not shut.

“I don’t thnk there is ever going to be healing about this, to be honest,” said Schmid. “Time will pass, but people will always remember we lost a chief. People will always remember a police officer got hurt.”

As of Sunday evening, organizers said, around 100 meals had been served. Organizers said that the leftover food would be donated. Tickets cost $10 and about $1,100 was raised, including raffled items.

Help for the fundraiser came from Community Market in the Natrona Heights section of Harrison and one of its suppliers, DeLallo’s, yielding pasta, bread and spaghetti sauce. Other businesses big and small contribued materials or financial assistance, including Donut Connection and Golden Dawn in New Kensington, plus Giant Eagle, Sam’s Club and Walmart, among others.

As they spoke, diners Sunday evening sat at tables or at the bar inside the VFW post. In addition to those dining in, many others stopped by for takeout. Others came who had never met the chief or the officer but wanted to show support.

“It’s horrible what happened,” said Tiffany Busch, 52, of Arnold, who was seated with her husband and another couple.

McIntire was shot and killed Jan. 2 following a two-day manhunt that ran through several neighborhoods. It ended when the suspect, Aaron Lamont Swan Jr., 28, of Duquesne, was fatally shot by police in Pittsburgh’s Homewood-Brushton neighborhood.

Schrecengost was wounded in the leg during the pursuit and is recovering, said Mary Lyons, 57, of Lower Burrell, a cousin of the injured officer who, along with her husband, Keith Lyons, 53, was at the dinner Sunday.

A vehicle Swan had carjacked in Brackenridge after shooting McIntire was located by Pittsburgh police in the city’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood. After a chase, Swan ran into a wooded area and fired upon officers who then returned fire and killed him.

McIntire, 46, was a lifelong resident of the Brackenridge area and had been chief for four years. He leaves behind his wife, Ashley, two sons, a daugter and a stepdaughter.

The outpouring of grief and support has been evident from the thousands who turned out for his funeral to myriad donations for the family to an effort underway to rename Third Avenue, the street where he was fatally shot, in McIntire’s honor.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)