‘ MAKE A DIFFERENCE’
Pittsburgh police launch blood drive to honor slain officer
Pittsburgh police on Wednesday launched a blood drive in honor of slain Officer Calvin Hall.
The drive kicked off a monthlong campaign to donate blood at a time when Western Pennsylvania is experiencing an unprecedented blood shortage.
“Over the past 10 years, our donor base dropped 50 percent,” said Tatia Shelow, marketing and communications specialist for Vitalant blood bank. The drop in donors is a result of a number of factors, including regular donors growing older and becoming unable to donate blood.
The drive honoring Officer Hall runs through Aug. 31. Throughout the blood drive, donors can tell Vitalant staff that they want to donate in honor of Officer Hall at the time of their donation.
Vitalant needs 600 donations a day to meet the needs of its hospital partners, Ms. Shelow said. It typically collects half that amount.
The idea to hold a blood drive in honor of Officer Hall came about when the police saw how much blood was needed for the officer after he was wounded, said Cara Cruz, the Public Safety Department’s assistant public information officer.
“We saw everything they did at the hospital to help Officer Hall, and it meant a lot to us,” police Chief Scott Schubert said.
The campaign was inspired by Officer Hall’s daily motto, which police said he would recite every time he departed for his shift. “Gotta go. Time for me to make a difference.”
“It’s a big honor, it’s a great honor to do something like this,” Jeffrey Barone, a detective in the sex assault and family crisis unit, said. “It shows that we care about each other.”
“For years I was a blood donor, and probably for the last five or six years or more, I didn’t,” Chief Schubert said. “I recognize that’s a failure on my part, so I’m going to continue to do it to help. Because I saw it in action and we want to give back.”
Chief Schubert was one of the first to donate blood at the bureau’s North Side headquarters, along with Deputy Chief Thomas Stangrecki and Sgt. Logan Hanley.
“Knowing that we’re doing this for Calvin made it a little more special,” Sgt. Hanley said.
Officer Hall was shot July 14 during a visit to his cousins’ house in Homewood. He initially had left due to a rowdy party across the street, but he returned after learning his cousin had been threatened with a gun. He became involved in an argument between the neighbors and his relatives and was shot in the back as he walked away, according to Officer Hall’s cousin Darnell Coates. He died three days later in the hospital.
On July 22, police charged Christian Bey, 30, with killing Officer Hall and announced the criminal complaint against Bey would be sealed. The Pittsburgh Post- Gazette has filed a request to unseal the complaint.