R&B star R. Kelly faces the possibility of decades in prison after being convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking in federal court in New York City.
A man accused of breaking into homes in two Allegheny County communities has been arrested.
By WPXI.com News Staff
ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — A man accused of breaking into homes in two Allegheny County communities has been arrested.
Police had been searching for Elwood Bartrug, 62, who was arraigned and booked into jail early Friday morning.
Bartrug was wanted for a series of home burglaries in Millvale and Reserve Township. As of Friday morning, he’s only charged in two Millvale break-ins.
Police said he would ring home doorbells in Reserve Township and would break in if no one came to the door. However, if someone answered, he’d ask for directions.
At one point during the search for Bartrug, Millvale police tracked him to a home, but he took off running and jumped out of a third-story window to get away.
According to a criminal complaint outlining two of the Millvale break-ins, Bartrug is charged with burglary, criminal trespass and theft by unlawful taking. Those two burglaries happened on Stanton Avenue on Sept. 13.
In one of them, an air conditioning unit was removed from a side window, but nothing was taken from the home, the complaint said. Surveillance video showed Bartrug inside the home, then running to and unlocking the front door to get out when an alarm went off.
In the other break-in, the homeowner returned home to find it had been ransacked. The glass window on the basement door was broken, and a video game console, controllers and video games were missing, the complaint said. The stolen items were later found at an electronics store on Grant Avenue in Millvale, where they had been traded in.
A woman was arrested after police said a 5-month-old child was exposed to narcotics and emergency personnel had to use Narcan on the child.
When officers arrived, firefighters and paramedics were rendering aid to the child, who was then transported to UPMC Children’s Hospital in stable condition after first responders had administered Narcan.
According to the criminal complaint, officials at the hospital said the child presented symptoms of opioid overdose.
Special Victims Unit detectives interviewed Rexrode, who is the infant’s guardian. She told police her and her boyfriend went to a local park on Bausman Street where she noticed the child being very lethargic and her lips turning blue. They took her home where the child’s skin started to turn blue and she wasn’t waking up, so they went to the first station.
During the interview, Rexrode admitted to using heroin and cocaine recently. A search of her home turned up empty stamp bags, as well as suspected heroin and drug paraphernalia in the living room where she had been sleeping on the couch.
MSNBC host Joy Reid turned to race Monday while discussing the media’s coverage of missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito, dismissing the focus on the case as “missing White woman syndrome.”
During a segment on her show “The ReidOut,” Reid said while Petito’s family deserved “answers and justice,” she felt the same media attention didn’t apply to non-White people when they go missing..
“It goes without saying that no family should ever have to endure that kind of pain. And the Petito family certainly deserves answers and justice,” Reid said. “But the way this story has captivated the nation has many wondering, why not the same media attention when people of color go missing?”
WASHINGTON — Haitians deported from the U.S. on Tuesday assaulted the pilots on board one of the flights when it arrived in Port-au-Prince and injured three U.S. immigration officers, according to a source familiar with internal reports of the incident.
Unrest broke out shortly after a flight carrying single adult men arrived and released the men to Haitian authorities on the airport tarmac. Then, according to the source, several of the men stormed another recently arrived flight carrying families.
The men assaulted the pilots of that plane, who work for a government contractor licensed to fly deportation flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while the families were still on board. Three ICE officers were also attacked on that airplane, each suffering non-life-threatening injuries, the source said.
The attacks come as the United States ramps up its deportations of Haitians after more than 15,000 overwhelmed the U.S. border by congregating under one bridge in Del Rio, Texas in just a matter of days. As of Tuesday, just over 1,000 of the Haitian migrants had been deported to Haiti, according to two sources familiar with the operations.
A total of 4,000 have been either deported or moved to other processing centers along the border, the Department of Homeland Security said.
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — A Pittsburgh man was arrested and charged in Johnstown after police said he tried to rob a woman late Saturday night and then ran over her with a pickup truck.
Police said 25-year-old Denzelle Kendrick was charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and robbery among other charges.
According to investigators, officers were called to an address in Johnstown around 10 p.m. Saturday for a report of a stabbing. When they arrived, they found a woman who had actually been beaten and run over by a Ford F-150 pickup truck. Kendrick was identified as the driver. He was seen on surveillance camera reportedly trying to steal the woman’s purse during the encounter.
Officers said Kendrick took off and was eventually pursued by state police troopers into Somerset County. Court documents said troopers were able to stop him using the “box” method, where law enforcement vehicles surround a suspect vehicle and all slow down. This causes the suspect vehicle to also slow as a result.
Troopers said speeds reached more than 105 mph before they were able to stop Kendrick.
A woman was shot Saturday evening in Duquesne, Allegheny County Police said.
The department’s General Investigations Unit responded to a request for assistance in Duquesne about 7:20 p.m., according to a department news release.
First responders who were sent to the 1000 block of Duquesne Boulevard found the woman, who had been shot in “an upper extremity,” investigators said.
She was taken to a hospital with what was believed to be a non-life-threatening wound, they said.
Investigators asked anyone with information about the shooting to call them at 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
WEXFORD, Pa — One local police chief told Channel 11 that a recent crime spree in his community could be one for the history books.
Northern Regional Police Chief John Sicilia said the stolen cars are worth nearly $500,000.
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One Bentley, For F250 Platinum Truck, Two Mercedes Benz and Two BMWs were stolen from the Bentley Pittsburgh dealership along route 19 early Thursday morning. Chief Sicilia says the crime started across the street at the enterprise in Warrendale, where the same group stole several license plates from rental cars to use on the Bentleys.
The chief says thieves then broke into the Bentleys by manipulating the key lock box on each car.
“We did enter the license plates and the vehicles into NCIC so any police officer around the country who would run that plate or VIN it would come back stolen.”
It now appears the thieves left the state and the cars are long gone. So far police have been able to locate one Bentley which was found abandoned in Summerville, West Virginia.
“We are working to process that vehicle for any kind of evidence we’ve been working with the PA state police auto theft task force but at this time we don’t have any suspects.”
The multimillionaire New York real estate heir Robert Durst has been convicted of murdering his best friend Susan Berman more than 20 years ago, in a case that took on new life following the documentary The Jinx.
Durst was found guilty of first degree murder on Friday after a jury in Los Angeles deliberated for about seven hours over three days. Berman was shot at point-blank range in her Beverly Hills home in December 2000 as she was prepared to tell police how she helped cover up the killing of Durst’s wife.
Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, was Durst’s longtime confidante who told friends she provided a phony alibi for him after his wife vanished.
Deputy DA Habib Balian holds the latex mask that Robert Durst used as a disguise. Photograph: Getty Images
Durst’s strange story gripped viewers of the hit television documentary series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, which chronicled the disappearance of his wife Kathie in 1982, the cold-blooded murder of Berman in Los Angeles 18 years later, and the violent 2001 death of a roommate in Galveston, Texas, where Durst was living under cover as a deaf-mute woman.
EBENSBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) — Approximately $8,143 worth of items were stolen from a home along the 500 block of 3rd Avenue in Elder Township, according to state police.
Sometime between Aug. 20 at 3 p.m. to Aug. 23 at 10:30 a.m., the following items were stolen by an unknown suspect(s):
Two bank robberies are under investigation in the Pittsburgh area on Thursday afternoon.
One happened at the PNC Bank on Washington Road in South Strabane Township, Washington County.
The second robbery happened at the Brentwood Bank in South Fayette.
South Fayette police said one person of interest was taken into custody during a traffic stop near the McKees Rocks area, about 20 miles from the Brentwood Bank.
Police said a second person of interest has been identified but has not yet been arrested.
Police are not releasing their identities at this time.
South Fayette police said no money was taken at the PNC Bank, however, money was taken from the Brentwood Brank.
An FBI spokesperson said no injuries were reported.
This is a developing story. Stay with Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 for updates. Download the WTAE mobile app to stay connected with breaking news.
Alowemer is charged with planning an attack on a church on Pittsburgh’s North Side in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
PITTSBURGH —
A Northview Heights man, Mustafa Alowemer, charged with plotting a potential terror attack against a Pittsburgh church pleaded guilty on Thursday morning before U.S. District Judge Marilyn J. Horan.
Police from several local departments are still searching for the shooter
NORTH VERSAILLES, Pa. —
One teenager was killed and a second is in critical condition after a shooting Saturday night at a popular Halloween attraction in North Versailles, Allegheny County.
The shooting happened at 8:15 p.m. at Haunted Hills Hayride on Mosside Boulevard.
According to Allegheny County Police, both victims are 15-year-old boys.
Police from several local departments are still searching for the shooter, also believed to be a teenager.
Police tell Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 the shooting appears to have stemmed from an argument near the ticket booth.
Haunted Hills Hayride was set to kick off the season by hosting a “Lights Out Event”. Gates were scheduled to open at 8:30 p.m.
Allegheny County Police say a couple hundred people were at the attraction at the time of the shooting.
Officers are currently interviewing workers and patrons. Anyone with information is asked to call Allegheny County Police at 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
Ligonier Valley police say a 27-year-old man who resisted arrest and led officers on a 3 mile chase in a stolen car along Route 30 was arrested and jailed on $200,000 bond.
Jesse Vaughn Lawson of New Alexandria is charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, driving on a suspended license, fleeing and eluding, receiving stolen property, reckless driving, resisting arrest and simple assault.
Acting on tips, the Westmoreland County Drug Task Forced served a warrant at a Hempfield home this week and seized 61 bricks of heroin, Xanax pills, three handguns, a rifle, two Tasers and about $11,000, according to court documents.
After the search, county detectives charged the homeowner, Chad J. Gilbert, 51, with multiple counts of manufacture, delivery and possession of a controlled substance, possession of prohibited offensive weapons and drug paraphernalia.
He was ordered held in the county prison after failing to post $250,000 bond.
A major drug ring was busted early Thursday morning in a Pittsburgh neighborhood, the Department of Justice announced.
By Adrianne Burke, WPXI.com
PITTSBURGH — A violent Pittsburgh neighborhood gang was busted during an FBI and police raid in Hazelwood early Thursday morning.
The gang, known as the “Hazelwood Mob,” was dismantled after a four-month-long investigation into violence and drug trafficking in the neighborhood. The indictment charged 25 people with drug trafficking and firearm violations, the Department of Justice announced. Investigators said they used wire taps and tips from the community to identify who was involved and what their role was in the organization.
Channel 11 was there as Pittsburgh police raided two houses along Second Avenue in Hazelwood around 6 a.m.
An armed woman who had barricaded herself in a building South Braddock Avenue in Pittsburgh surrendered without incident early Thursday night, according to Pittsburgh police.
The woman, who was not identified, ended the standoff in the 200 block of South Braddock Avenue at 7 p.m. and was going to be taken into custody, once being medically cleared by paramedics who responded to the incident, police said
The city’s SWAT unit responded to the emergency. Police had called to her to safely surrender, according to the Pittsburgh Public Safety’s Twitter page.
Additional details were not available late Thursday night.
MSNBC host Joy Reid turned to race Monday while discussing the media’s coverage of missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito, dismissing the focus on the case as “missing White woman syndrome.”
The multimillionaire New York real estate heir Robert Durst has been convicted of murdering his best friend Susan Berman more than 20 years ago, in a case that took on new life following the documentary The Jinx.
EBENSBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) — Approximately $8,143 worth of items were stolen from a home along the 500 block of 3rd Avenue in Elder Township, according to state police.
