Natasha Lindstrom stories, Page 25
Police investigate shooting that burst pipe inside Hill District apartment building
Police are investigating a shooting that caused a water leak inside a Hill District apartment building early Friday. No injuries were reported, Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said. Shortly before 2 a.m., Pittsburgh police and firefighters responded to an apartment complex in the 2100 block of Centre Avenue for a...
Police raid Lincoln-Lemington home, seize stolen guns, 4.5 pounds of cocaine, other drugs
Police arrested three Pittsburgh residents Thursday after finding stolen guns, nearly 4.5 pounds of cocaine as well as methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and drug packaging materials inside a home in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood, officials said. Three of the eight guns recovered from the residence turned up stolen, public safety officials said....
2nd person charged in Arnold shooting death of Armstrong County man
A woman with ties to Butler has been charged with homicide in connection with the killing of an Armstrong County man during a robbery in an Arnold alley in late June, records show. Bailey Ann Hines, 23, is accused of plotting a fake drug deal and robbery that led to...
Feds: Crafton man caught with 4.5 pounds of fentanyl faces drug, gun charges; $100K seized
A Crafton man allegedly caught with nearly 4 ½ pounds of pure fentanyl, an AK-47 rifle and more than $100,000 in cash faces federal drug and gun charges, prosecutors said . Robert Allen, 40, is accused of plotting to sell the fentanyl during April and May 2017, U.S. Attorney Scott...
Pittsburgh man who shot, killed Beechview family’s dog gets 1 to 2 years behind bars
A Pittsburgh man will spend one to nearly two years behind bars for shooting and killing a dog inside a Beechview house following a Super Bowl party while the family who owned the pet slept. Travis Hamilton, 23, of the city’s Banksville neighborhood, pleaded guilty Wednesday to animal cruelty and...
Trump to spotlight Beaver County cracker plant during Western Pa. visit
President Trump plans to spotlight the ethane cracker plant under construction in Beaver County as a welcome example of economic progress and job creation when he visits Western Pennsylvania on Tuesday afternoon. Trump will discuss his administration’s efforts to bolster the manufacturing and energy sectors against the backdrop of one...
Highmark CEO optimistic that UPMC deal will attract more patients to Highmark plans
Highmark Health CEO David Holmberg said Thursday he’s “cautiously optimistic” that more Western Pennsylvanians will choose Highmark insurance products now that the nonprofit system has inked a 10-year contract with rival UPMC. Since striking the deal in late June, Highmark officials have been observing an uptick in interest from people...
Nick Cumer, Dayton shooting victim from Western Pa., was ‘someone we all could look up to’
Nick Cumer spent many long days and nights at Washington High School polishing his craft on the trombone. But, when he enrolled as a freshman at Saint Francis University, Cumer was told that the Cambria County school’s newly forming band had enough trombone players. What they needed was someone who...
Springdale woman moved by reunion with UPMC doctors she thought she’d never see again
Six weeks ago, Evie Bodick had just about given up. The 75-year-old Springdale woman broke into tears in mid-June when she recounted that she had to shift her health care treatment away from the doctors and facilities she’d trusted for years, all because of a bitter battle between Pittsburgh’s two...
3-year-old girl drowns in Plum family’s swimming pool
A 3-year-old girl drowned in a backyard swimming pool Aug. 1 in Plum. The child reportedly was found at the bottom of the pool by a family member, Allegheny County Police said. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner identified the girl Friday morning as Ca-Nayah Mitchell. The incident happened at a...
Teacher at CAPA school in Downtown Pittsburgh accused of sexually abusing student
A teacher has resigned from his job at the Creative and Performing Arts 6-12 school in Downtown Pittsburgh after being charged with sexually abusing a student, officials said. Samuel Karas, 28, of Carrick, was charged Wednesday with institutional sexual assault, court records show. Karas — who has taught at the...
Penn Hills man guilty of guarding drugs, money for cross-country ring tied to Mexican cartels
A Penn Hills man pleaded guilty to guarding massive amounts of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and cash as a participant in one of the largest drug rings ever busted in Western Pennsylvania, federal prosecutors said July 31. Chace Johnson, 21, was convicted of one federal narcotics charge for “maintaining a drug-involved...
Woman assaulted, robbed outside Pitt student center; police search for suspect
Police are searching for a man accused of robbing and assaulting a woman at gunpoint near the center of the University of Pittsburgh campus in the city’s Oakland neighborhood early Tuesday, officials said. Officers from the university and Pittsburgh Bureau of Police responded to the report of the robbery at...
Upper St. Clair grad, IUP student dies in jet ski accident in South Carolina
A 20-year-old Indiana University of Pennsylvania student died in a jet ski accident while visiting Hilton Head in South Carolina, officials said Tuesday. Ciara Eiriz was pronounced dead near a boat dock at Mackay Creek between the islands of Pickney and Hilton Head, Beaufort County Coroner’s officials told Trib news...
No more ‘Heinz Field’? New name suggestions abound on social media
Heinz Field’s days may be numbered — at least as fans know it. Stalled talks over a contract renewal have prompted industry observers to speculate that Kraft Heinz Co. probably will not seek to retain the naming rights to the home of the Steelers beyond 2021, Street & Smith’s Sports...
Shootout in Ross shopping plaza spurs scrutiny over undercover drug buys in public places
Michael Botta orchestrated more undercover drug buys than he can count over more than two decades as a federal narcotics officer. The retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent, who also had stints with the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the unpredictable nature of sting operations requires careful planning...
Ross plaza shootout spurs scrutiny over undercover drug buys in public places
Michael Botta orchestrated more undercover drug buys than he can count over more than two decades as a federal narcotics officer. The retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent, who also had stints with the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that the unpredictable nature of sting operations requires careful...
Woman, 18, shot in leg in Pittsburgh’s Fairywood neighborhood
An 18-year-old woman was shot in the leg early Friday in Pittsburgh’s Fairywood neighborhood, police said. Authorities received a ShotSpotter notification of gunfire shortly before 1 a.m. followed by a 911 call about woman with a gunshot wound, public safety spokesman Chris Togneri said. Officers from Pittsburgh police’s Zone 6...
3 plead guilty in connection to heroin death of Sheraden woman in Bethel Park
Three people have struck plea deals in connection to a Pittsburgh woman’s fatal heroin overdose at a Bethel Park house in 2017, prosecutors said. Debra Lee Taylor, 41, of Carnegie pleaded guilty Thursday to drug delivery resulting in the death of Shannon J. “Sissy” Fashian for supplying the heroin that...
Man gets 6-plus years for $2M counterfeit Darknet scheme that hit Pittsburgh, Uganda stores
The former head of an international counterfeit operation will spend more than six years behind bars for a scheme that used the so-called “Darknet” to flood Uganda and the Pittsburgh region with more than $2 million in fake U.S. currency, prosecutors said Wednesday. Ryan Andrew Gustafson, 31, also must pay...
Woman gets up to 6 years for hit-and-run crash that killed North Hills man
A Ross woman was sentenced Wednesday to three to six years in prison for fleeing a fatal car crash that killed a North Hills man crossing the street the week before Christmas in 2017, prosecutors said. Melinda Gregor, 30, was convicted last year for striking a pedestrian, Michael Menner, with...
Pittsburgh man accused of plotting to bomb church to support ISIS pleads not guilty
The 21-year-old Northview Heights man accused of plotting to blow up a North Side church pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges Wednesday in federal court in Pittsburgh. Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, a Syrian native admitted to the United States as a refugee three years ago, was arraigned at the federal courthouse...
Police say Beaver County man confessed to killing boy who smoked pot with his daughter
Family and friends plan to pay their respects Wednesday to a 17-year-old Ellwood City boy shot to death last week outside a New Castle pizza shop by his girlfriend’s father — a Beaver County man who police say confessed to killing the teen because he believed the boy had gotten...
Pittsburgh man killed, state drug agent wounded in Ross shootout
An undercover officer with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office was wounded early Tuesday afternoon in a shooting at a Ross shopping plaza that left the suspect in a drug investigation dead, police said. The narcotics agent was conducting a drug sting in the parking lot in front of the Big...
Pittsburgh man nabbed by FBI wiretap gets 5 years for fentanyl conspiracy
A Pittsburgh man nabbed in an FBI wiretap investigation into a three-county drug ring was sentenced to five years in prison for plotting to sell more than 40 grams of fentanyl, federal prosecutors said Monday. Adrian Jordan, 29, who lives near where Pittsburgh meets Mt. Oliver, took a plea deal...
