Penn Hills community honors 50th anniversary of fallen officers

After a half-century, the Penn Hills community continues to honor the deaths of two police officers.

Penn Hills community members, retired officers and municipality officials gathered on March 25 to honor the 50th anniversary of losing Penn Hills Sgt. William Schrott and Officer Bartley J. Connolly Jr. The two officers were shot and killed on March 25, 1972.

The hourlong ceremony featured speakers police Chief Ronald Como, Mayor Pauline Calabrese, Senator Jay Costa and Rep. Anthony DeLuca. Monroeville police Chief Adam Cole was the keynote speaker. Cmdr. Richard Manning offered a bagpipe performance, and the Rev. Doug Rehberg led a benediction.

The ceremony was held inside because of rain, but it moved outside so Connolly’s daughters Noreen and Colleen and Schrott’s grandson Detective Craig Schrott couldlay a wreath on the memorial. An estimated 50 people attended.

Joanne Alexander, Schrott’s daughter, was glad to see people continue to gather to honor the officers every year. The past week had been emotional for her, she said. She appreciated everyone’s effort in putting together the memorial.

“This was one of the nicest ceremonies in a long time,” she said.

Former councilman John Petrucci, who attended the event, said he remembers his mother crying in the kitchen when she heard the news. Coming from a line of officers in his family, the tragedy struck a nerve for him.

“There is just no way to describe how touching and somber the event was. We lost two good men that day in an act of a robbery,” he said.

The two officers were working security detail at the East Hills Shopping Mall. The shooter, Rose Dinkins, who was 24 at the time, entered a store armed with the intent of robbing it. She fatally shot Schrott, who tried to get her to put the gun down, before also shooting and killing Connolly, who was several stores down from where Schrott was working the detail.

Dinkins was sentenced in 1972 to two consecutive life terms for first-degree murder.

Lenny Hromyak, a retired Penn Hills officer, was coming in for work for an extra detail when he heard the news.

“Not only did it impact the department, but the community, too. It was the beginning of the end of the shopping center. People were scared to go there because of the incident,” he said.

Hromyak was unable to attend this year’s ceremony because he was in Florida, but he was present at the unveiling of the monument honoring the two fallen officers in 2010. He recalled the death of officer Michael J. Crawshaw awakening those feelings again.

Penn Hills police Officer Michael Crawshaw, 32, died in December 2009 when he was shot by Ronald Robinson, 41, of Homewood, who had moments before shot and killed another man over a $500 drug debt.

Robinson is serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole after his conviction of second-degree murder in Crawshaw’s death and first-degree murder for killing Danyal Morton, 40, of Penn Hills.

“It resurrected everything again for anybody who was there in 1972 and recreated all the hardship,” he said.

Oakmont resident Melissa Shontz attends the memorial every year because her dad was a part of the police force when the tragedy occurred. She emphasizes to people the importance of knowing about the tragedy and remembering the officers.

“I always try to tell everyone to come. They are still mourning this. When you lose someone, it never leaves you. This was a tragic thing,” she said.