PENN HILLS, Pa. (AP) – Police were searching for a hitchhiker who shot a driver who picked him up in a Pittsburgh suburb after a struggle over a gun with a backseat passenger.
Penn Hills police say the driver, 18-year-old Curtis Bell Jr., was taken to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh, but his injuries were not believed to be life threatening.
Police say Bell pulled over about 8 p.m. Sunday to give the suspect a ride after thinking he knew the man from a distance. When he got nearer, Bell realized he didn’t know the man, but gave him a ride anyway.
Police say the hitchhiker pulled a gun, apparently planning to rob the driver or steal his car, but a juvenile passenger in the backseat struggled to possess the weapon before it fired, hitting Bell.
Pittsburgh-area school reopens after email shooting threat
MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. (AP) – A Pittsburgh-area Catholic school has reopened after an emailed shooting threat closed it for three days last week.
Police say they want Seton-LaSalle High School students and parents to remain vigilant as classes resume Monday.
Mount Lebanon’s deputy police chief says they’re reminded to speak up if they see, hear or read something suspicious.
Students worked from home Friday using laptop computers, after the school was completely shut down Wednesday and Thursday.
Police are working with the FBI to determine who sent the email because the sender took steps to hide their identity.
The email contained threats to shoot students and staff and referenced similar incidents in Littleton, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut.
Law enforcement officials say it’s difficult to assess the threat’s credibility until they determine who sent it.
Cause of Allegheny inmate’s death pending toxicology tests
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A homeless man arrested on a drug charge earlier this month has been found dead at the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh.
The county medical examiner’s office says results of toxicology tests on the body are pending.
Until then, authorities say they won’t know how 49-year-old Timothy Haskell died.
Online court records show he was arraigned April 3 by police in West View, a tiny suburb, based on an incident last month.
An autopsy on Haskell’s body was inconclusive.
He died Friday after falling ill at the jail. He had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday on the drug charge.
Autopsy set on body found by runners in Pennsylvania river
BALDWIN, Pa. (AP) – An autopsy was set on the body of a 67-year-old Pittsburgh man spotted floating in river.
Baldwin police Chief Michael Scott says several people were running on a trail along the Monongahela River on Sunday when they spotted the body about 2 p.m.
The Allegheny County medical examiner has identified the body as that of 67-year-old John Flynn.
An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.
County homicide detectives were also investigating.
The body was spotted near the Keystone Iron & Metal Company, though it wasn’t immediately clear how or when it entered the water. Police say it doesn’t appear the body was in the water long before it was found.