District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Friday he does not believe Kennywood is safe, and he is prepared to go to court to force the iconic park to comply with the safety measures it was given last year after a shooting inside wounded three people.
The park is set to open for its 125th season April 22.
“I’d hate to see the opening of Kennywood be delayed, but I’m very serious and law enforcement is very serious about making that environment safe,” Mr. Zappala said at a media event at the Allegheny County Police Training Academy in McCandless.
“I don’t think it’s safe right now,” he said.
Park spokeswoman Tasha Pokrzywa noted that safety measures, both new and enhanced, were rolled out last fall in the aftermath of the incident. She said the park cooperated fully with local law enforcement at the time.
“We do not want to engage in any political controversy,” she said. “The safety of our guests and team members are our top priority.”
During a media tour on Wednesday, Kennywood officials said security would be similar to last year. However, visitors can bring in one large bag or a soft-sided cooler no larger than 12 inches by 12 inches by 12 inches, said Gene Petriello, regional marketing and sales manager.
The park will also continue increased security around the park’s perimeter and the fence area, where there will be extra lighting.
Details about security will be released closer to the opening of the park, Mr. Petriello said on Wednesday.
The Sept. 24 shooting inside Kennywood Park happened shortly before 11 p.m. on the second night of the park’s Phantom Fall Fest, which includes a haunted house-type component after dark. The shooting, police have said, was the result of “an altercation” between two groups of young men.
Authorities have never said how they believe the gun made it into the park.
“All these little kids that are there on a regular basis — they’re there to have fun. They’re not there to be the innocent victims of a firefight,” Mr. Zappala said.
Mr. Zappala said his office is prepared to go to court to make sure the park has complied with a list of safety improvements county investigators provided them in November.
“We’ve taken over housing complexes, we’ve taken over bars, we’ve taken over numerous nuisances-types of establishments,” he said. “If you’re not going to make this safe for children, as far as I’m concerned, you are a nuisance.”
The district attorney shared an internal county police memo dated Nov. 30 that outlined the changes the park had made since the shooting, including doubling the number of officers, removing trees from the fence line nearest Route 837, expanding the chaperone policy and installing new cameras along the fence line.
The memo further noted that several other changes were in the works: new fencing, updated dispatching and reporting procedures for officers, new training, new park radios and a corporate-level risk assessment.
The county police officer who wrote the memo noted that Scott Priestley, the park’s public safety director, reported that general manager Mark Pauls “has been proactive and supportive in accelerating some of the measures that have been completed.”
Investigators were back at the park about a week ago to see what safety measures been implemented. Mr. Zappala said management has been uncooperative, and his office had to get a warrant to get back inside.
One of the photos taken that day was of a large chain link gate. Where the two gates meet and lock, there is a relatively large gap down the middle.
“This is one of the areas that was most concerning to county police,” he said. “Certainly you could put a weapon through there.”
Mr. Zappala said he’s not sure if that’s how the weapon involved in the Sept. 24 shooting got into the park or “if it was even necessary to sneak a weapon in on a campus like that.”
One of the weapons recovered from the Kennywood shooting scene was a handgun modified with small metal or plastic devices that are meant to convert pistols into automatic weapons. Paired with an extended magazine, shooters could fire off dozens of rounds in a matter of seconds.
Mr. Zappala said at least a half dozen more cases involving guns modified with the devices have cropped up since the Kennywood incident. One of those incidents involved Aaron Swan Jr., who was shot and killed by Pittsburgh police hours after he shot and killed Brackenridge Police Chief Justin McIntire.
“This is becoming, disturbingly, a trend,” he said.
In Pennsylvania, possession of such a converter is a misdemeanor. Mr. Zappala said his office will refer cases involving those converted firearms to the U.S. Attorney’s Office where convictions for such charges carry lengthier prison terms.
“We refer gun cases on a regular basis to the federal government. This is a little different — this is something we have not faced,” he said. “We intend to get ahead of it.”
First Published: March 24, 2023, 5:18 p.m.
Updated: March 25, 2023, 4:31 p.m.
