Trio hurt in Downtown park stabbing tell police shifting stories
Three people who received minor injuries in a stabbing incident Sunday night near a Downtown Pittsburgh park knew each other through a “transactional history with drugs and money,” a Pittsburgh police spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Kevin Jenkins, 51, of Pittsburgh remained in the Allegheny County Jail Tuesday on charges that he stabbed a couple as they squabbled over drugs and money.
While both sides told police shifting stories, authorities “believe that this man, Jenkins, was the aggressor,” Emily Bourne, a Pittsburgh police spokeswoman, told TribLive.
Police charged Jenkins, who lists his home address in court records as a homeless shelter in the city’s Uptown section, with three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of recklessly endangering another person.
He was arraigned Monday and was denied bail.
Pittsburgh police were dispatched for a “robbery/stabbing” around 7:55 p.m. on Sunday and found a man and woman near Bigelow Square, according to authorities.
Police apprehended Jenkins nearby.
Jenkins and the victims each claimed the other attacked first during an altercation in Frankie Pace Park, which runs over Interstate 579.
The male victim said Jenkins approached the couple and asked them for money. The victims later changed their version of events, telling police “they approached Jenkins about money that he had stolen from them,” according to a criminal complaint.
The couple “also stated that they wanted drugs off of Jenkins,” police said.
The man’s chin and forearm were cut; the woman was cut on her left wrist.
But Jenkins, who was cut on his thigh, told police he approached the couple “about money and drugs that they had stolen from him days prior,” the complaint said.
Police said Jenkins changed his story “multiple times” about how many people were involved.
A spokeswoman for the homeless shelter listed as Jenkins’ address said the organization’s policy barred her from confirming whether he was living or being served there.
An attorney for Jenkins was not listed in court records.
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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