B-PEP’S ROY BLANKENSHIP: “WE HAVE TO TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY” WHEN IT COMES TO VIOLENCE IN BLACK COMMUNITIES. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
‘We need to reclaim our peace’
In the span of 17 hours, two men were killed in Homewood, at two different locations, one of which occurred in broad daylight, along Frankstown Avenue, inside a convenience store that hugs N. Homewood Avenue.
A few hours before that second deadly shooting occurred in Homewood, a woman was shot to death in the Hill District.
Five homicides have occurred within Pittsburgh’s city limits in the month of August, and for many Black Pittsburghers who have family and friends in neighboring municipalities, they are aware of additional homicides within Allegheny County this month. That includes a 21-year-old man who was shot to death inside a residence in East Pittsburgh, Monday, Aug. 24.
Literally, as that shooting occurred in East Pittsburgh, community leaders and the Chief of Police for the City of Pittsburgh were about to hold a news conference at Freedom Unlimited in the Hill District, desperately calling for the violence to stop.
PITTSBURGH POLICE CHIEF JASON LANDO, AT THE B-PEP NEWS CONFERENCE, AUG. 24, 2026. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
Jason Lando, the city’s police chief, well-known and well-respected, stepped to the podium and said his officers have one problem when it comes to solving these unfortunate, unnecessary shootings; people in the community aren’t sharing what they know to police.
“For the most part, we know that these are situations where individuals know each other, there’s a connection, a beef, a relationship, and people don’t want to come forward,” Chief Lando said at the news conference sponsored by the Black Political Empowerment Project, Aug. 24, in the Hill District. “And I get it; sometimes it’s out of fear, but that’s why we need our community to come forward, those violence interruption groups to come forward…”
On Sunday night, Aug. 2, a 34-year-old woman, La’Eva Morrison, was shot and killed in the Strip District following an altercation. On the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 12, a 30-year-old woman, Shaelynn Maria Moore, was shot and killed in Northview Heights in a domestic situation. The man who killed her then took his own life, according to Pittsburgh Police.
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, Aug. 19, 55-year-old Jacqueline Watson was shot and killed in the Bedford Dwellings housing complex in the Hill District. The two men who died in the Homewood shootings were Andrew Hall (Aug. 19) and Shakir Jackson (Aug. 18).
There have been more than 50 homicides in Allegheny County in 2026 as of Aug. 25. There were 70 all of last year, 2025. Within city limits, there have been 27 homicides as of Aug. 25 in 2026. There were 35 homicides total in all of 2025.
“They can put all the anti-violence money in the world out here, they can double the police force…but without parental accountability and families and communities standing up to work together to bring the village back, we’ll never have that solution that everyone’s crying for; peace,” said Roy Blankenship, B-PEP community organizer and violence prevention advocate, in an exclusive interview with the New Pittsburgh Courier, Aug. 25, a day after Blankenship spoke at the B-PEP news conference. “We’re putting it on others when it should be our job.”
Blankenship said times are hard right now, “a lot of single parents are doing whatever they can to make ends meet,” with some parents working two jobs.
“It takes neighbors and others to work together,” Blankenship said.
“We’ve got to rebuild this rapport again (with the youth in the neighborhood). The Black community has a whole issue with police jumping on kids, or assaulting, or not policing or even over-policing. But the only other solution to that is, we have to take accountability.”
