IN THE LAST WEEK

Allegheny County is on pace to have about 100 fatal shootings this year, a higher number than usual. They all have tragic aspects, no matter the number, but two in the past week resonated more than most. Sunday night, 26-year-old Nicole

Dailey was outside her home in the Perry South section of the North Side, holding her 7-month-old baby with whom she’d been to church that morning. For reasons unknown, a gunman unknown shot dead the young woman, an Edinboro University student who was known to others as both sensitive and radiant.

The uninjured baby was scooped up and protected by a good Samaritan nearby. The loss of Ms. Dailey, however, was mourned by several hundred people who gathered for a vigil days later, also in grief over the vulnerability of so many young people whose lives are taken by violence.

An inexplicable shooting death occurred later in the week in a West Mifflin mobile home park, where police said 6-year-old Julian Hoffman died from a bullet fired by his 10year-old brother, using their mother’s handgun.

The two boys were home alone while their mother was at work. For reasons unknown, the older boy somehow had access to a loaded weapon. Authorities offered nothing to suggest that the shooting was intentional, but they did not immediately rule out charges against either the brother or mother, who were not identified.

“Every firearm should be treated as loaded,” cautioned Allegheny County police Superintendent Coleman McDonough. “Every firearm should be secured with a gun lock. There is really no excuse for a weapon to get in the hands of a child.”

The number of shooting homicides nonetheless pales in comparison to the extent of drug overdose

deaths, either in the region or more broadly. At the same time that President Don Trump offered a longawaited declaration of the opioid epidemic as a national emergency, there were reminders of just how dangerous it is locally.

Law enforcement officials have become more aggressive about charging drug dealers in the deaths of customers who die from overdoses. The latest such case involves a state charge of drug delivery resulting in death against a Crafton Heights man accused of distributing a lethal heroin-fentanyl mix that killed a North Fayette man last year.

Even police conducting work against such dealers are not safe. Eighteen Pittsburgh police officers were sickened after being exposed to fentanyl during a raid on an alleged opioid operation in Elliott. They suffered no long-lasting effects but required hospital evaluation after experiencing dizziness and numbness.