Community leaders and city officials convened on Pittsburgh’s North Side on Monday to ask the public to play a role in stopping a staggering violent crime wave hitting locally and across the nation.
Pittsburgh since January has seen a 90% increase in violence from this time last year — a striking surge marked by 20 homicides and nearly 50 nonfatal shootings, including many young victims, city police said.
“We are cutting off our legacy every time one of these children dies,” said Tiffany Simpson, 47, of Fineview. “That’s a doctor, a lawyer, a politician.”
Recent fatal shootings have taken the lives of Ahmir Tuli, an 18-year-old North Hills graduate who in February was shot outside his family’s restaurant in the Strip District, and, within the past two weeks, Tyjuan Malachi, 18, in Northview Heights, and Kenneth Hairston, 18, in Sheraden — both family members of the Rev. Michael Day, pastor of the Legacy International Worship Center, who spoke Monday.
“I’m not only a community leader, not only a pastor, but I’m a relative to the two who were lost last week. Tyjuan and little Kenny were my cousins,” the Perry South pastor said. “... Ty wasn’t even from here. He was visiting from Cleveland. He was waiting on an Uber and was caught in the crossfire. The Uber driver was calling him, not knowing he got shot.”
This past weekend, gun violence left one person dead and two injured at a party in Knoxville Sunday night, and another man is in stable condition after he was shot early Monday near a bar in Pittsburgh’s East Hills neighborhood.
Police say the surge is causing concern and fear among residents and that city officers are working to stop the incidents from occurring.
“We will have more officers in cars together, they will be strategically placed in communities [to] do directed patrols, and they will also engage with the community members. I emphasize engagement because it is important for our officers to build relationships,” said Shatara Murphy, assistant director of community affairs for Pittsburgh police.
Additional patrols have been sent to the hardest-hit neighborhoods, and the police bureau has been in “constant contact” with Pittsburgh Public Schools to monitor threats of violence among youth, Ms. Murphy said.
Public Safety officials say its Group Violence Intervention program — which includes funding for nonprofit and religious partners — has increased its presence and community resource officers have been walking through several neighborhoods each week.
“Like today, for example: myself and some other officers were out walking in neighborhoods just chatting with people we saw as we passed,” said Sgt. Tiffany Kline-Costa, head of the bureau’s Community Engagement Office. “... They feel safer because we’re out getting to know the community members. That’s key: Relational policing is the foundation for all community policing. We need to know our neighbors and understand our neighbors and know our communities so that we can serve them. I’m not going to come into your neighborhood and tell you what the best way to reduce crime is. But if I have a conversation with you, you might have some really good ideas.”
Ms. Murphy said a bill is expected in City Council next month that will aim to add funding for community anti-violence programs.
Public Safety officials acknowledged that recent high-profile fatal police shootings following the death of George Floyd — including of a 13-year-old boy in Chicago and an officer who discharged a firearm instead of a Taser, killing a Black man in a Minneapolis suburb — have eroded public trust.
“It’s difficult to engage right now when our youth see individuals being harmed by police officers every time they log into social media or turn on the news. And then we have dedicated folks like Sgt. Kline-Costa who has devoted her life to do this work and just wants to make a difference and she’s met with resistance. ... I know myself, when things resurfaced, my father started telling me stories of things that have happened to him in his younger days,” said Ms. Murphy. “... And so how do you engage in a productive manner when you see them hurting people who look like you? That’s an everyday challenge. But they show up every day committed to trying.”
Mayor Bill Peduto used the news conference, held in front of the Project Destiny youth organization in California-Kirkbride, as an opportunity to appeal to large corporations, nonprofits and organized labor to join the effort to fight violence — including pushing his long-standing but not yet operational OnePGH proposal, which aims to fundraise from large tax-exempt hospitals and universities for the city’s “critical” needs.
“We’re not going to solve this by just putting more police out on the street. This is solved by giving people opportunity, opportunity they do not have right now. It’s up to our nonprofits, our hospitals, our universities, the engines of our new economy to understand that they have a role to play,” he said, suggesting institutions and labor organizations provide job and pre-apprenticeship programs for city youth.
The reason for the rise in crime remains unclear.
“It’s a complicated phenomenon; there are a lot of factors to gun violence,” Josh Fleitman, manager at statewide gun violence prevention organization CeaseFirePA. “Poverty, hopelessness and lack of opportunities typically drive crime generally speaking, and I think the pandemic has exacerbated this. The more guns there are in a community, the more crimes and violence there will be. It’s been a banner year for gun purchases in the state and across the country, and we’ve seen a record number of background checks for purchases.
“It’s not a surprise to see this surge in violence happening.”
The advocacy group is lobbying the state Legislature on a host of bills, including a red flag law that would seize firearms from at-risk individuals, universal background checks and millions in grants for group violence intervention.
Homicides in Pittsburgh rose by nearly 40% last year, but it was an increase that followed a year in which the total was the lowest in nearly two decades.
The 51 killings recorded in 2020 were lower than the number of homicides investigated during the four years before 2019. Countywide, there was a total of 107 killings, up from 95 in 2019.
“We encourage members of the public to come forward and share their ideas, concerns, and information with police,” Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said in a news release. “Police can only solve crimes when everyone works together. That cooperation and collaboration is key.”
Ashley Murray: amurray@post-gazette.com. Lacretia Wimbley: lwimbley@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1510 or on Twitter @Wimbleyjourno.
First Published: April 19, 2021, 2:39 p.m.
Updated: April 20, 2021, 3:22 p.m.
