Justin Vellucci stories, Page 15
Pittsburgh businessman Thomas West announces run for mayor on GOP ticket
Yet another candidate for Pittsburgh mayor has entered the race to unseat Ed Gainey. Thomas West, a 48-year-old businessman from Highland Park, is running as a Republican. He will battle Anthony Moreno, a former Pittsburgh police officer, for the GOP nomination in the May primary. West announced his candidacy Tuesday...
Pittsburgh, police review board probe 2 use-of-force incidents
Pittsburgh’s Office of Municipal Investigations and the independent Citizen Police Review Board are scrutinizing two unrelated incidents last month in which city police used force to make arrests. The arrests have elicited concerns among the NAACP’s Pittsburgh branch and other leaders in the city’s Black community, who have a meeting...
Police charge Downtown Pittsburgh Jimmy John’s manager as 3rd assailant in employee beating
Police have charged a Jimmy John’s manager with participating in the brutal assault last month of an employee at the sandwich shop’s Downtown Pittsburgh location, accusing him of punching the man at least nine times. Melvin Robinson, 29, of Penn Hills, is the third man arrested in the attack, which...
‘This city needs a change’: Pittsburgh mayoral contender Tony Moreno rips Gainey in campaign launch
Retired police officer and former Democrat Tony Moreno roundly skewered Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey Friday as he announced plans to run as a Republican for mayor of the city in the spring primary. “We have no accountability in this city. We have no transparency,” said Moreno, 56, of Brighton Heights,...
1 dead, 4 injured in Upper St. Clair house fireVideo
A house fire Thursday morning in Upper St. Clair killed one person and injured four others, including two police officers. The officers were treated at a local hospital for smoke inhalation and released, according to the Upper St. Clair Police Department. No information was released on the person who died...
‘It was macabre’: Police find decayed corpse in Washington County home
The corpse of a Washington County man was left to decay in bed for six months while several of his family members lived among it, police said Wednesday. Authorities do not suspect foul play. Michael Bebout, 64, apparently died last summer of natural causes inside his Canton Township home on...
Unsung heroes brave the bitter cold to keep Pittsburgh movingVideo
Timothy Jones knows cold. But bundled in a heavy coat and snug-fit, black wool cap, the Shaler man appeared unfazed Tuesday morning as he quietly paced in one of the region’s coldest spots: a narrow walkway, exposed to the elements 60 feet above the ice-covered Ohio River, at the lock-and-dam...
Many Western Pennsylvanians put politics aside for moment as Trump sworn in a 2nd time
As temperatures in Washington, D.C., lingered around 27 degrees Monday morning, state Rep. Jill Cooper sported an electric-heated jacket as she bounced between events celebrating the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Frigid temperatures, making the inauguration the fourth-coldest one on record, forced festivities indoors — the first time since Ronald...
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....
