REVEREND EILEEN SMITH, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, SOUTH
PITTSBURGH COALITION FOR PEACE
35 homicides in city; lowest since 1989
The famous rapper Jay-Z is known for many quotes, but amongst his most famous is, “Women lie, men lie, numbers don’t.”
People all across Allegheny County can say what they want about gun violence. They can say that it “feels” like the violence isn’t dropping. Or that the funding that’s spent on anti-violence organizations is a waste of money.
But the numbers don’t lie. In 2025, Allegheny County recorded 73 homicides, or 37 fewer homicides than in 2024. And of those 73 homicides, 35 were homicides in the City of Pittsburgh, the lowest number it’s been since 1989.
When it comes to homicides, one homicide is too many. However, something’s working in the ongoing fight to reduce gun violence.
That “something” is a flooding of violence interrupters that are on the streets of Pittsburgh and some of the neighboring municipalities, made possible by funding through the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and the City of Pittsburgh. For the DHS, funding comes from the Community Violence Reduction Initiative grants, and for Pittsburgh, funding comes from the “Stop the Violence Fund.”
Ed Gainey may not be Pittsburgh’s mayor any longer, but he placed a permanent stamp on his mayoral legacy by reducing homicides in the city, like he said he would. There were 71 homicides in the city in 2022, his first year in office. And by the time he left office, there were 35 recorded in 2025, technically more than a 50 percent reduction in homicides over four years.
Gainey fought to keep the “Stop the Violence Fund’s” community grants in tact, to the tune of an additional $1.75 million in September 2025 for dozens of boots-on-the-ground anti-violence organizations to remain rolling.
Gainey, at the time, said the organizations “exercised an unwavering strength and respect to our young people that says that you don’t have to die in these streets. You can reject the streets.”
The Courier previously reported that some of the organizations that received additional grant funding from the city to continue fighting against gun violence were 1 Hood Media Academy, YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh, West End P.O.W.E.R., The Kingsley Association, Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, Community Empowerment Association, Homewood Children’s Village, East End Cooperative Ministry, A’s Vision, Hill District Youth Sports, Josh Gibson Foundation, and Za’Kiyah House Housing.
Allegheny County Police Assistant Superintendent Commander Victor Joseph was asked during a Dec. 31, 2025, press conference why he felt the homicides were drastically down in the county. Among his answers was the county’s commitment to reducing gun violence through the CVRI (Community Violence Reduction Initiative) grants, which allots $50 million over five years to local organizations.
“Different programs to try to stop the violence before it starts,” Cmdr. Joseph said, “stopping retaliatory violence on the street, or with programs that change thoughts, change behaviors, change minds of folks who would otherwise engage in violent activity.”
Focus on Renewal, an organization based in McKees Rocks, is the “Community Quarterback” organization that received grant funding from the county to facilitate anti-violence-based strategies in the McKees Rocks/Stowe Township area. In 2021, the two areas had 11 homicides. In 2025, the two areas had no homicides.
That’s a huge turnaround.
“This represents a profound shift for Sto-Rox,” voiced Focus on Renewal Executive Director Kevin Platz, in a public statement. “Moving from an all-time high of 11 homicides just four years ago to zero today demonstrates what is possible when communities are supported with the right resources, strong partnerships, and proven prevention strategies.”
Platz added: “For decades, Sto-Rox carried the burden of being defined by violence. Today, the data tells a different story — one of progress, accountability, and hope.”
BLACK POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT PROJECT CEO TIM STEVENS
The organization South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace is the “Community Quarterback” for the South Hilltop area, which, in past years, has seen its share of gun violence in neighborhoods such as Beltzhoover, Knoxville, Mt. Oliver, Mt. Washington, Arlington Heights, Allentown and Carrick.
Through the first 11 months of 2025, the South Hilltop area only had one homicide — 17-year-old Tyrome Gatewood Jr., killed in Mt. Oliver on March 27, 2025. A double homicide in Carrick on Dec. 18, 2025, in which Quaziah Jones, 23, of McKeesport and Damien Powell, 27, pushed the total number of homicides in the South Hilltop communities in 2025 to three.
“Our team is considered to be credible messengers who go out every day, eight hours a day, and they form relationships with the highest-risk people who are the potential shooters,” Rev. Eileen Smith, program director of South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace, told the New Pittsburgh Courier, Jan. 8. “And our outreach workers then take on a caseload, and they try to reduce the risk factors for gun violence that they are finding in the street, such as lack of housing, health care, education, poverty, lack of jobs…”
Reverend Smith said it’s important to note that many of the organization’s employees are full-time, thanks to the county’s CVRI grants. “That means we’re able to hire more guys on the street, hire a chaplain…you have to compensate people when they’re doing this kind of work,” she said.
Looking at the homicide data for 2025, 52 of the 73 homicide victims in Allegheny County were Black, or 71 percent. Of the 52 Black victims, nine were Black women, 43 were Black males. Six Black male homicide victims were under the age of 18. There were no Black female homicide victims under the age of 18.
Homicide clearance rates were on the rise in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County in 2025. As of Jan. 1, 2026, Pittsburgh Police cleared 24 of the 35 homicides, or 69 percent. In Allegheny County as of Dec. 31, 2025, Cmdr. Joseph said Allegheny County Police had cleared 75 percent of the homicide cases. A homicide is “cleared” most times when an arrest has been made.
Commander Joseph also said that more illegal firearm seizures happened in 2025 as opposed to 2024. In 2025, Allegheny County police seized 127 illegal firearms as opposed to 102 in 2024. “We take an all-hands-on-deck approach (to fighting gun violence),” Cmdr. Joseph said. “We try to throw everything at it, hit it from all angles. …We all believe that it’s a very small number of people driving the violence within communities, so if we’re able to take those violent individuals off the streets, that can help reduce violence.”Davis said, “because if you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. And regardless of what your passion is, remember that you have a responsibility to give back, in some way, shape or form.”