Police arrest 2nd suspect in 2023 Stowe shootout with undercover police
Police have arrested a Pittsburgh man in connection with a 2023 shootout in Stowe involving undercover police.
He is the second suspect charged in the violent encounter in which dozens of shots were fired but no one was hit.
Bruce Harvard, 24, of South Side Slopes, was one of the people in an SUV pursued by an unmarked state drug task force vehicle at about 1:45 p.m. of Feb. 27, 2023, according to a complaint in the case.
A McKees Rocks police officer and an agent from the state Attorney General’s Office started following the vehicle after one of them thought he recognized someone else in the vehicle, the complaint said.
Three men — one of them wearing a ski mask — emerged near Lower Benwood Avenue from the black SUV, which was being followed by a McKees Rocks police officer and an agent from the state Attorney General’s Office, and opened fire, the complaint said.
The men fired more than 40 times at the undercover officers, who took cover under their dashboard, the complaint said.
Both officers returned fire, one aiming through the space where the front windshield used to be.
The suspects then fled the area and shot at another law enforcement vehicle before ditching the SUV in Mt. Washington, the complaint said.
Allegheny County Police arrested Harvard on Monday on 23 charges, including multiple counts of criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, assault of a law enforcement officer, and recklessly endangering another person.
Harvard was awaiting a preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon. His attorney was not listed in the court record.
Eric N. Durah, 25, of Pittsburgh, was arrested in March in connection with the shooting, court records show. Durah remained Tuesday in the Allegheny County Jail and is facing at least 25 charges, including attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
Durah is being represented by a public defender, whose office does not comment on pending cases. His jury trial is scheduled to begin April 2 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
County police had no information on other suspects, spokesman Jim Madalinsky told TribLive on Tuesday. He said the investigation is continuing.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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