Justin Vellucci stories, Page 13
Western Pa. schools go remote as temperatures plummet
Hundreds of Western Pennsylvania school districts have moved to remote learning Tuesday morning as an arctic blast of near-record-low temperatures are anticipated through Wednesday. Pittsburgh Public Schools, whose 20,350 students make it the largest district in Allegheny County, will go remote Tuesday, officials said online. A number of others, including...
Crafton woman dies in house fire, another person injured
A 71-year-old woman died early Monday morning in house fire in Crafton. Christine Shutt was identified as the victim by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office. Firefighters were dispatched at 5:15 a.m. to a three-story, brick house on Elmwood Street, where two people were reported to be trapped inside, Crafton...
14-year-old dies days after being shot by older brother
A 14-year-old boy died three days after being accidentally shot in the face by his 16-year-old brother earlier this month in East Liberty, authorities reported Thursday. Carmello Mosley died on Jan. 7 at UPMC Presbyterian hospital, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office. Jordan Mosley, Carmello’s brother, remained in...
Theft from Evgeni Malkin’s home not tied to organized burglary network, police say
The person who stole three Stanley Cup championship rings from Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin’s Sewickley Heights home doesn’t appear to be linked to any national operation targeting sports superstars, Allegheny County Police said Wednesday. Police have made no arrests in the case. Malkin discovered his home had been burglarized...
Gun confiscations down at Pittsburgh International Airport last year
The number of guns Transportation Security Administration officers confiscated at Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh airports dropped slightly in 2024, officials announced Wednesday. TSA stopped 42 handguns at Pittsburgh International Airport’s security checkpoint last year, down from 44 in 2023, spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. Pittsburgh accounted for nearly half of all guns...
Aliquippa VFW closes, liquor license goes dormant as police seek ‘armed, dangerous’ suspect in attack
A Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge where a man was brutally beaten in what the victim’s family called a hate crime agreed to close permanently, while authorities Friday kept searching for a suspect labeled as “armed, dangerous and mentally unstable” by the Beaver County district attorney. The lodge’s leadership “are...
1 arrested, 1 at large in beating of Aliquippa man at VFW lodge
One man turned himself in Thursday while a second suspect remained at large in connection with the beating of a 52-year-old Aliquippa man inside a Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge. The family of Preston Coleman III said he was beaten, unprovoked and mercilessly, for nearly 30 minutes late Sunday inside...
Medical examiner IDs man found dead on Wilkinsburg sidewalk
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office Wednesday identified the man authorities found dead last weekend on a Wilkinsburg sidewalk as Dorrel Ferguson, 19. Police were dispatched at 8:25 p.m. Saturday to the 1000 block of Ross Avenue, where the unidentified man, later identified as Ferguson, was found dead on the...
Homicides, shootings down in ’24 in Pittsburgh, reflecting nationwide trends, data shows
Like many U.S. cities, Pittsburgh saw homicide and nonfatal shooting rates drop in 2024 to pre-pandemic levels. That trend did not play out, however, in the suburbs ringing the city in both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, data shows. “America’s crime trends in 2024 were remarkably positive with an enormous decline...
Police: Man found dead on Wilkinsburg sidewalk was shot once in torso
Allegheny County Police are investigating the shooting of a man they found dead Saturday night in Wilkinsburg. Police were dispatched at 8:25 p.m. to the 1000 block of Ross Avenue, where the unidentified man was found dead on the sidewalk, county police said. The man had suffered a single gunshot...
‘Steel is all around us:’ Despite uncertain future locally, U.S. Steel’s connection to this region and its people endures
President Joe Biden’s decision to thwart a Japanese firm from buying U.S. Steel doesn’t pen an obituary for the Pittsburgh-based industrial titan whose decades-long fall from grace has been inextricably linked to the city where it was born. But it does portend an uncertain future for an industry that built...
Canonsburg man hurt in New Orleans terror attack gives his account of the incident
Jeremi Sensky described his feelings Thursday after barely surviving the terrorist who mowed down people in a pick-up truck in New Orleans early New Year’s Day, killing 14 and injuring 30 others. “I’m just happy to be alive,” is how Sensky of Canonsburg described his feelings to CNN’s Anderson Cooper...
Good Samaritan finds strength in optimism as he recovers from August shooting in PittsburghVideo
Paul Werder never imagined a simple gesture of kindness could unravel so many lives. The retired banker was driving to his investment property on Pittsburgh’s North Side in August when he passed a man lying on his side. His body lay slung across the sidewalk, his head in a patch...
‘Time of our lives’: Steelers, Chiefs fans celebrate holiday with tailgating before Chiefs stole Christmas
A giant, inflatable Santa Claus nursing a fake Yuengling beer bottle perched Wednesday morning above a sea of tailgaters on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Scores of football fans wore red and white Santa Claus caps. Others meandered through parking lots while donning holiday-themed pajamas. And at least one man dressed up,...
As Christmas, Hanukkah overlap, interfaith couples celebrate with trees and menorahs
Early in their relationship, Danielle Rupright talked with her boyfriend, Shawn West, who was brought up Methodist, about how much she valued her Jewish faith and culture. “I said, ‘It’s important to me that I raise my kids as Jews,’ ” she recalled. “And he responded, ‘It’s important to me...
Pittsburgh Regional Transit discloses ransomware attack
Pittsburgh Regional Transit is investigating a ransomware attack that targeted the transit agency’s communications operations last week and briefly disrupted dispatchers from tracking vehicles on its light-rail line. The scope of the attack remains unclear. Adam Brandolph, an agency spokesperson, told TribLive on Monday evening it appeared primarily to affect...
Pittsburgh interior designer to face judge in business fraud case out of Fox Chapel
An interior designer accused of swindling a Fox Chapel woman out of $170,000 is headed to court, the latest in a flurry of legal cases surrounding the embattled Pittsburgh business owner. Lauren Michelle Piasecki, 44, of Pittsburgh’s Stanton Heights neighborhood waived her preliminary hearing Wednesday in a Sharpsburg district court....
Pittsburgh high school locked down after 11 shots fired nearby
A North Side school was locked down briefly Tuesday morning after at least 11 shots were fired outside school grounds, authorities said. Perry Traditional Academy, a high school in the Pittsburgh’s Perry North neighborhood, was in “secure status” at about 10 a.m., two hours after a juvenile boy was targeted...
Police charge man with raping North Side woman, 93, after following her home on bus
A man remained in jail Tuesday on charges that he forced his way into a 93-year-old woman’s North Side home over the weekend and raped her. Authorities said Ronny Hough, 39, followed the woman on a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus from Downtown to the city’s Troy Hill neighborhood about 6...
Pa. AG charges Allegheny County residents in vehicle ‘smash-and-grab’ spree
State authorities have accused four Allegheny County residents of breaking into dozens of vehicles last year throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania, stealing checkbooks, credit, debit and ID cards, and then draining victims’ bank accounts. On Dec. 6, the state Attorney General’s Office charged Ahmed Henderson, Theresa Imel, Elizabeth Madden and Shaquan Moore...
Police flag Pittsburgh man for Steelers parking lot scam
Police have sacked a Pittsburgh man they say netted more than $1,000 Sunday by getting Pittsburgh Steelers fans to pay to park at a North Side lot he doesn’t own. Alphonso Rattliff, 30, on Sunday charged 23 drivers headed to see the Steelers play at Acrisure Stadium $50 apiece to...
‘Misinterpreted’ text, not bomb threat, led to disruption on Spirit jet at Pittsburgh airport
Allegheny County Police on Thursday removed all passengers from a Spirit jetliner at Pittsburgh International Airport after one traveler “misinterpreted” another’s text message as being about “a possible bomb threat,” the Transportation Security Administration told TribLive. There was no bomb threat, according to TSA and county police. TSA officials and...
Zappala sues over troubled Allegheny County pension fund
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. is suing the county pension board and has asked a judge to force county officials to adequately fund a retirement system slated to run out of money in 15 years. In the 43-page lawsuit, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court’s civil...
Police charge teen with plotting hit from Allegheny County Jail cell
A McKeesport teen awaiting trial for homicide orchestrated a hit on a police informant from an Allegheny County Jail cell, using code words like “lottery numbers” and “taco shells” to instruct another teen to carry out the crime, police said Wednesday. Allegheny County Police have charged both teens — Daemond...
Rep. Mike Kelly’s task force releases final report on Trump assassination attempt in Butler County
A task force led by a Republican congressman from Southwestern Pennsylvania on Tuesday capped a monthslong investigation of the attempted assassination of President-elect Donald Trump at a Butler County campaign rally in July by releasing dozens of recommendations to improve the U.S. Secret Service after widespread criticism of the agency....
