February 09, 2023 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Commentary-Editorial
(Submitted photo courtesy of Jonathan Stark)
Jonathan Stark is the owner of the People’s Bank Building and the Executive Building, Downtown, as well as several other commercial and residential properties around the city. He writes:
I’m not originally from McKeesport. When I try to explain to people why I love McKeesport, they don’t understand. They aren’t from McKeesport.
When my wife Jen and I moved to neighboring White Oak in 2005, I remember being totally impressed with the old architecture, beautiful homes and the stories about what many would agree was the best city in Allegheny County to grow up in at one time.
I was intrigued. I had never seen anything like it where I grew up in Westmoreland County.
I remember introducing myself to a few police officers when I bought my first downtown building in 2008 and asked them what I should expect. They told me that it’s a big city and has all the same problems that any big city has. I got to know those officers and became good friends with many of them and other firefighters, EMS, local politicians and residents.
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February 08, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A McKeesport police officer who was shot by a suspect on Monday afternoon will be laid to rest on Valentine’s Day.
A Mass of Christian burial for Sean Sluganski, 32, is scheduled for Tuesday at St. Albert the Great Church of Blessed Trinity Parish in Baldwin Borough.
Sluganski’s funeral arrangements are in charge of John F. Slater Funeral Home in Brentwood, which announced Wednesday that friends and family will be received from 12 noon to 8 p.m. Sunday and from 2 to 8 p.m. Monday.
Earlier, an Allegheny County spokeswoman asked members of the media to stop contacting the Sluganski family.
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February 08, 2023 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Politics & Elections
Unofficial returns indicate that Matt Gergely has been elected to the 35th District of the state’s General Assembly, giving Democrats control of the state house. (Submitted photo via Facebook)
Matt Gergely appears to be on track to become the Mon Valley’s next state representative, taking the seat once held by his brother, Marc.
With 97 percent of the vote counted, unofficial results from the Allegheny County Division of Elections show Gergely, a Democrat from McKeesport, with an insurmountable 73 percent to 25 percent lead over Don Nevills, Clairton Republican.
Former McKeesport Councilman Paul Shelly Jr. was running an independent write-in campaign. Write-in votes account for less than 2 percent of the vote, according to county elections officials.
Gergely will fill the unexpired term of former state Rep. Austin Davis, who resigned after being elected Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor.
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February 07, 2023 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A line of McKeesport police, fire and EMS vehicles prepares to leave the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office from Pittsburgh’s Strip District with the remains of slain police Officer Sean Sluganski. (Submitted photo special to Tube City Almanac)
An escort of McKeesport emergency vehicles carried the body of slain police Officer Sean Sluganski to a South Hills funeral home on Tuesday afternoon.
Sluganski, 32, who had served on the McKeesport police department for two years, died Monday following a shooting on Grandview Avenue.
Allegheny County police have charged Johnathan Jermia Morris, 31, with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, assault on a law-enforcement officer and attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer in the first degree in connection with the death of Sluganski and the wounding of fellow McKeesport police officer Charles Thomas Jr., 35.
Morris is in custody at a Pittsburgh hospital, awaiting arraignment.
Sluganski and Thomas were investigating a domestic disturbance at a home on Willow Street shared by Morris and his mother, Candace Tyler. In an affidavit, county detectives said that Tyler called police because Morris was suffering a mental health episode as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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February 07, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Crime and Police News
The son of a former McKeesport police officer who was fired in 2021 has been charged in connection with the murder of a current police officer, and with wounding another.
Johnathan Jermia Morris, 31, is awaiting preliminary arraignment on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, assault on a law-enforcement officer and attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer in the first degree.
Morris is accused by Allegheny County police of fatally wounding McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski, 32, and injuring Officer Chuck Thomas Jr., 35, after they responded to a domestic dispute at the home of Morris’ mother, Candace Tyler.
Emergency personnel said Morris is currently under police guard at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Oakland, where he was flown following the incident Monday afternoon.
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February 06, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A mile-long possession of emergency vehicles, led by three motorcycle police officers, escorted an ambulance from UPMC McKeesport hospital to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday evening.
The McKeesport Ambulance Rescue Service vehicle carried the remains of city police Officer Sean Sluganski, 32, who died after being shot Monday afternoon near the intersection of Versailles and Grandview avenues. Sluganski was fatally wounded by a suspect as he and another officer, Charles Thomas Jr., 35, responded to a request for help during a domestic disturbance.
The suspect in Sluganski’s murder, whose name has not yet been officially made public, was shot by a third, unidentified McKeesport police officer near the intersection of Versailles and Patterson avenues.
According to unconfirmed reports, the suspect fired at least 15 rounds at Sluganski and Thomas. Allegheny County police homicide detectives are investigating and said Monday that neighbors and business owners had been “very helpful” in providing witness statements.
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February 06, 2023 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
The Allegheny County sheriff’s office is covering some police calls in the City of McKeesport following an incident on Monday afternoon in which one officer was killed and another injured.
Pennsylvania State Police and the Allegheny County police also are assisting, county officials said.
“The City of McKeesport is in many ways the ‘heart’ of the Mon Valley,” the sheriff’s office said in a prepared statement. “Today that heart is broken by senseless violence, and another stark example of the danger that our law enforcement officers face every day, on every shift and on every call.”
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said Monday at a press conference that the city will “continue to do everything we can to collaborate with other law enforcement agencies and use all of the resources available to us.”
A prayer vigil has been scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight (Feb. 6) at the Beulah Park campus of the McKeesport United Methodist Church Shared Ministry, located at 1615 Grandview Ave., just a few blocks from the shootings.
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who lives not far from the scene, said his thoughts, and those of his wife, Blayre, are with the officers, their families and the community. “This tragedy hits close to home for me and my family,” Davis said.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. also issued a statement of condolences.
“My condolences are with the family of the officer killed in McKeesport and I’m praying for the recovery of the second officer injured,” Casey said. “My office has been in contact with local officials to offer support.”
“Deepest condolences go out to the family of the McKeesport police officer killed today while serving the community,” State Rep. Nick Pisciottano of West Mifflin said. “My thoughts go out to the second injured officer and his family as we all hope for a swift recovery.”
February 06, 2023 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
BREAKING STORY: This is a breaking story and is subject to change.
Mayor: ‘Pray for our city and we’ll get through this’ ...
Suspect in custody following incident
A city police officer is dead and another was seriously wounded following an incident Monday afternoon near the intersection of Versailles and Grandview avenues.
The area was closed to the public and motorists and pedestrians were advised to avoid the neighborhood. The nearby McKeesport Area High School campus was placed on exterior lockdown, though classes were dismissed at the usual time.
UPMC McKeesport hospital also was closed to everyone except emergency personnel and patients.
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko, police Chief Adam Alfer and state Sen. Jim Brewster joined Allegheny County police at a press conference just before 4 p.m.
“Please keep the family in your prayers, and all police officers in your prayers at this time,” Cherepko said, his voice breaking. “Pray for our city and we’ll get through this.”
The names of the officers involved have not yet been made public. It is the first death of a McKeesport police officer in the line of duty since 1993.
Allegheny County police said city officers responded at around 12:30 p.m. to what was described as a “domestic dispute” between a mother and her adult son at a home on Wilson Street, about a block from the intersection of Grandview and Versailles.
Investigators said the suspect walked away as police attempted to question him. A family member warned the officers that the suspect might be armed.
County police Superintendent Christopher Kearns said that as the suspect walked along Grandview Avenue, with the officers behind him, he suddenly turned and fired, striking them.
The suspect then continued on foot to the intersection of Patterson and Versailles avenues, county police said, where he encountered another McKeesport police officer and opened fire. That police officer returned fire, striking the suspect and wounding him.
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February 06, 2023 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Politics & Elections
Persons who want to run for municipal offices this year should submit their nominating petitions no later than March 7, an Allegheny County spokeswoman announced.
The Elections Division today announced that nomination petitions are now available online and in the office for candidates seeking to run in the May 16 municipal primary.
The nomination petitions must be printed or copied as duplex (double-sided, front-to-back, head-to-head) on plain white 8.5” x 11” (letter-size) paper. This requirement cannot be satisfied by printing each side of the nomination petition on a separate sheet of paper and affixing the sheets together, the county said.
Petitions, along with instructions, are available online.
Voters will be electing mayors in some municipalities, including McKeesport, along with members of city and borough councils, township commissioners, school board members and other municipal offices.
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February 06, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Source: University of Pittsburgh and Women for a Healthy Environment)
Trace amounts of chemicals used in firefighting foam can still be detected in the water supplies of lower 10th Ward residents, almost two years after a massive fire that destroyed a local auto-repair shop.
However, says Pitt researcher Carla Ng, the amounts of chemicals known as PFAS in the water are so small that they may not be the worst exposure most people face.
“It could be that your drinking water is not your main exposure to PFAS,” says Ng, an assistant professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering who is affiliated with the university’s Pittsburgh Collaboratory for Water Research, Education & Outreach. “You may want to cut the other products out of your life that may have an even bigger impact.”
And compared to the initial samples taken in 2021, Ng says, the level of chemical contamination in the water is substantially lower, which is good news. But traces of PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, and PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonate, are still a concern.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also can be found in fast-food wrappers, microwave-popcorn bags, pizza boxes, candy wrappers, plastic water bottles, non-stick cookware, cleaning products, stain-resistant coatings for upholstery and carpets, and even personal care products, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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