A group home in Carrick where a teenage boy was nearly beaten to death during a fight Saturday is part of a long-standing network of homes for troubled youth dating to the 1960s and was operating under a valid license with the required level of staffing when the fight broke out.
Two teens remained jailed Monday, charged with beating another at Circle C Youth and Family Services on Carrick Avenue, one of four group homes run by Circle C in Allegheny County.
Malik Crosby, 16, and Yusuf Shepard, 15, are charged as adults in the 10:30 p.m. assault that left the victim, identified in a police complaint as Nicholas Grant, unresponsive. He was revived by police and paramedics and was in critical condition at UPMC Mercy.
According to police, a staffer at the home tried to break up the fight and then called police.
Officers found Nicholas unconscious and not breathing in the kitchen. The officers performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
Police said Nicholas had just returned to Circle C that day. He'd been there before but was removed because he'd argued with Yusuf Shepard. They argued again Saturday night, leading to the fight, during which the victim hurled a vacuum cleaner at Yusuf. Police said Yusuf then put the victim in a choke hold while Malik beat him with the vacuum cleaner.
Investigations are under way by the city homicide unit, the county's Department of Human Services and the state Department of Human Services, which licenses and inspects group homes.
Circle C declined comment.
The organization, with offices on Noblestown Road, is a private non-profit that has served troubled youth in the Pittsburgh region since 1967 after starting as an outgrowth of the Young Life ministry. It incorporated as a non-profit in 1981.
Circle C's mission statement says the organization “provides a safe environment and therapeutic relationships for children and families at risk…Our goal is to instill personal growth and positive values and achieve permanency for each child.”
Circle C runs four homes for juveniles in Carrick, the North Side and Bellevue, each with a licensed therapist on site. One of the North Side homes, called Oasis, is for girls. The other three are for boys. The Carrick home has a capacity for nine boys ages 12 to 18, most of whom are students in the Pittsburgh public schools.
The number of boys in the home fluctuates, but on Saturday the facility appeared to have the required number of staffers on site.
Under state law covering group homes, one staff member must be present for every eight residents.
The police report does not indicate how many people were present during the fight, only mentioning the combatants and a staff member who continually ordered them to stop while she called 911 for help. State records indicate that Circle C has a "hands-off" policy for its staffers in handling juveniles that the organization says has been largely successful.
Last year, Circle C received more than $2 million from the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. Director Marc Cherna said Circle C’s group homes are among 21 in Allegheny County.
County human services currently has 19 youth placed with Circle C group homes and 10 with its foster care program, Mr. Cherna said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, formerly the Department of Public Welfare, is in charge of certifying group homes for being in compliance with state law. The Carrick Group Home was operating under a valid certificate issued last year.
The inspection reports for Circle C's homes dating to 2010 indicate mostly minor violations, such as lack of a hot water under pressure in one home, bunk beds without rails, faulty fire alarms and failing to file a report on time, although there were a few more serious incidents.
The state last did inspections of the Carrick home in November and October, during which there were five juveniles living there. Among the violations cited was one for failing to update the health and safety evaluation for one boy from 2013 to indicate he had been involved in prior assaults.
Another inspection report from August, when the home had eight juveniles living there, seven with mental illnesses, indicated there had been a police incident there which the home did not report within the required 24 hours.
The reports also show that during a fight in April, a staffer grabbed a boy by the throat and threw him down the front stairs. Another staffer recorded the incident on a cell phone. Circle C said the fight, which required police intervention and also involved the parent of a boy, took two hours to get under control and that the staff member who threw the boy down the stairs had resigned in June.
First Published: January 13, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
