January 29, 2021 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A Wilkinsburg man is being held in the Allegheny County Jail after leading police on a chase that ended up with a crash inside the RIDC Industrial Center of McKeesport and a search through a local railroad yard.
Zaire Hatchin, 21, is jailed in lieu of $20,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing Feb. 8 on more than a dozen charges, including possession of drugs with intent to deliver, reckless driving, firearms violations and leaving the scene of an accident.
McKeesport police said an officer on routine patrol early Wednesday morning observed a blue Toyota sedan traveling at a high rate of speed on Lysle Boulevard, and began following it as it turned onto Coursin Street.
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January 28, 2021 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A former city man faces five years in federal prison after his conviction on narcotics and firearms charges.
Jared A. Ogrosky, 23, formerly of the city’s Highland Grove neighborhood, also was sentenced to three years’ probation following his release. The sentence was imposed Jan. 20 by Senior U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti in Pittsburgh.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady said that Ogrosky was arrested May 10, 2019, following a search of his Bowman Avenue home. According to federal prosectors, police and federal law-enforcement officers found nine bricks of heroin in a closet inside the home, along with a loaded 9-mm pistol and a 50-round 9-mm magazine.
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January 26, 2021 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A Monroeville man is being held in the Allegheny County Jail without bond in connection with the strangulation death of a McKeesport man inside his home on Grover Street.
Devin Alexander Hale, 30, faces a preliminary hearing March 12 before Magisterial District Judge Kim Berkeley Clark in Pittsburgh.
Allegheny County police allege that Hale and another man forced their way into the home of David M. Faust, 66, on Jan. 19, and that Hale strangled him during a robbery.
Faust died Jan. 23 at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Oakland, of injuries sustained in the incident, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
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December 29, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
(This is a developing story and will be updated)
A McKeesport man charged with shooting and wounding a city police officer has been arrested in West Virginia.
Allegheny County police on Tuesday evening reported that Koby Lee Francis, 22, was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals at an apartment complex in Clarksburg, about two hours south of Pittsburgh.
Francis is being held at the North Central Regional Jail and Correctional Facility in Greenwood, W.Va., to await extradition back to Pittsburgh.
Francis is charged by county police with aggravated assault, attempted homicide, unlawful possession of a firearm, flight to avoid apprehension and escape, in relation to the Dec. 20 shooting of McKeesport police Officer Jerry Athans, 32.
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December 26, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
Four people face criminal charges in connection with the escape of a McKeesport man accused of shooting a police officer outside the Public Safety Building, Downtown.
Jasmyn Henderson-Bracey, 25, and Gesiah N. Grigsby, 21, both of McKeesport, are charged by the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office with multiple counts of hindering apprehension or prosecution.
They were arrested Wednesday and are each free on $10,000 bond pending a preliminary hearing Jan. 4 before Magisterial District Judge Beth S. Mills.
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December 23, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
The search continues for a man accused of shooting a McKeesport police officer on Sunday afternoon.
On Wednesday, a federal agency and a Pittsburgh-area business owner both announced that they would offer rewards for information leading to the apprehension of Koby Lee Francis, 22, of McKeesport.
Francis is accused of shooting city police Officer Gerasimos “Jerry” Athans, 32, on Fourth Avenue outside the Public Safety Building and then fleeing the scene, still handcuffed from an earlier arrest.
He has been charged by Allegheny County police with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, escape, flight to avoid apprehension and violating the uniform firearms act.
Police have urged Francis to surrender himself to authorities.
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December 23, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
Residents and some civil-rights groups have criticized checkpoints and searches that were conducted Sunday night in the wake of the shooting of a McKeesport police officer.
But Allegheny County police Superintendent Coleman McDonough said this week that officers wanted to get an armed and dangerous suspect off of the streets as quickly as possible before any additional violence took place.
“We wanted it to end right here,” McDonough said at a press conference Monday. “We want this to be the last harm inflicted by that individual ... that’s our primary concern.”
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December 21, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
McKeesport police Officer Jerry Athans, 32, prepares to return fire Sunday after being shot three times by a suspect identified as Koby Lee Francis, 22. Francis is charged by Allegheny County police with attempted homicide. (Submitted photo via Allegheny County police)
Holiday decorations in Kennedy Park on Lysle Boulevard spell out the words, “PEACE ON EARTH.”
The scene captured by surveillance cameras on Sunday afternoon along Fourth Avenue — just behind those words — is anything but peaceful.
Footage released by Allegheny County police on Monday shows a suspect identified as Koby Lee Francis, 22, of McKeesport, firing several shots at city police Officer Gerasimos “Jerry” Athans, 32, from the back seat of a McKeesport police cruiser.
Athans takes cover at the front of the car, turns, aims and returns fire as Francis — still handcuffed from his arrest a few minutes earlier — flees on foot. The entire sequence plays out in about 20 seconds.
“We strongly urge members of the community who can see that this was an egregious violation to cooperate with our investigation and provide us with his whereabouts,” said county police Superintendent Coleman McDonough at a press conference Monday.
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December 20, 2020 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
Koby Lee Francis, 22, is wanted by Allegheny County police in connection with the shooting of a McKeesport police officer on Sunday outside the Public Safety Building. (Courtesy Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office)
A suspect who was arrested Sunday afternoon for violating a protection-from-abuse order shot a McKeesport police officer outside of the Public Safety Building, sparking a massive lockdown and search.
The 32-year-old officer, whose name has not been officially released, was in critical but stable condition at UPMC Presbyterian hospital, Oakland, Sunday night.
The suspect, identified by police as Koby Lee Francis, 22, of the city is wanted by Allegheny County police on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, escape, flight to avoid apprehension, and violating the uniform firearms act.
The incident happened just after 4 p.m. outside the Fourth Avenue entrance to the police station. A dragnet fell over the Downtown area and Third Ward following the shooting, as police from multiple jurisdictions — including local, county and state agencies and federal agents — cordoned off a large section of the city.
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