Pittsburgh police, mayor say alert bus driver, parent thwarted potential shooting at Homewood school

An alert bus driver and a concerned parent helped prevent a potential shooting earlier this month at a Homewood high school, Pittsburgh officials said Thursday.

Pittsburgh police responded to Westinghouse Academy on North Murtland Street around 2:30 p.m. Sept. 15 after the driver and parent told Pittsburgh Public Schools police that they saw three people wearing ski masks driving around the school, police spokeswoman Cara Cruz said.

About 20 minutes later, as students were leaving the school, officers spotted the gray SUV speeding nearby and driving recklessly, Cruz said.

Officers attempted to stop the vehicle in the 6800 block of Frankstown Avenue, Cruz said. Once stopped, the three people inside, all of them juveniles, were detained and searched for weapons. None were found.

In the vehicle, which was discovered to be stolen, police said they found “a firearm and a spent shell casing,” Cruz said. In the trunk, they found a gas canister and a large cloth wick, incendiary materials that Cruz said “are often used to burn vehicles that are stolen or used in violent crimes.”

Two of the juveniles — both Pittsburgh residents, ages 12 and 13 — were charged with receiving stolen property, firearms not to be carried without a license, driving without a license, possessing incendiary devices and reckless driving, Cruz said. The juveniles, who were not charged as adults, now are wearing electronic monitors.

The third juvenile, a 16-year-old Pittsburgh boy, was released to the custody of a guardian, Cruz said.

The juveniles, who police did not name, do not attend Westinghouse Academy, police Chief Larry Scirotto told reporters Thursday. He did not know where they go to school.

Mayor Ed Gainey and Scirotto said the situation was resolved quickly and without incident because of the solid relationships between police and city residents.

“This was a group of people driving around Westinghouse with a firearm,” Gainey told reporters. “At the end of the day, we were able to save lives … We know that, when we work together, we can stop these things from happening.”

Scirotto said the juveniles, who didn’t cooperate with police, did not explain why they were driving around the school or their intentions.

“You’re wearing a ski mask, driving around the school with a gun,” Gainey interjected. “We know what that means.”

At Thursday’s news conference, Cruz also cited community members talking with police as a factor that led to an arrest this week in Brookline, where Pittsburgh police confiscated cocaine and pressed fentanyl pills from what they called a known drug-house.

The Sept. 15 incident unfolded much differently than a shooting at the school earlier this year.

On Feb. 14, four Westinghouse Academy students were shot outside of the Homewood school as it let out. The student victims — two 15-year-old boys, a 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl — were hospitalized but they weren’t seriously injured.

“The more we talk about (crime), the more people get engaged,” Gainey said. “We will continue to do what is necessary to make this the safest city in America.”

Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman Ebony Pugh was not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon.