Public safety forum draws crowd
Twelve days ago, a man accused of gunning down five people and an unborn child in Wilkinsburg was found not guilty, sending waves of grief and anger through that small community.
Mayor Marita Garrett expressed frustration with how the case was handled on Facebook but also invited those upset about the case to attend a community forum on public safety Tuesday night.
Despite a packed room — and an appearance by Allegheny County police Superintendent Coleman McDonough — the verdict in the case against Cheron Shelton didn’t come up.
Mayor Garrett suspects she knows why.
“Did people expect this [verdict] to happen?” she asked. “Why ask a question you already know the answer to?”
Still, Ms. Garrett appreciated the presence of Superintendent McDonough, with whom she got off to a rocky start last week.
After she posted about the Shelton verdict on her Facebook page, Superintendent McDonough issued a statement countering the comments she made and asking that public officials get accurate information before posting their thoughts on social media.
Then the two spoke on the phone.
Although their conversation was strained to start, they both agreed that by the end they were on the same page, and he agreed to send someone to the public safety meeting.
Superintendent McDonough told the group gathered there that he wanted to explain the role of his agency in WIlkinsburg.
Typically, the county police only go into smaller
communities when their assistance is needed in an investigation. The county police were the lead agency in the mass shooting on Franklin Avenue and investigate homicides in the community — 11 last year.
“We are a reactive agency,” Superintendent McDonough said. “We only come to Wilkinsburg when we’re asked to come here by Wilkinsburg police.”
Because of that, he continued, his officers aren’t doing patrol or building relationships with the community.
The superintendent said he would like to start a process “to build more bridges we can sustain.”
As he opened the floor to questions, he was asked, “Who killed Romir Talley?”
Talley, 24, was shot and killed by a Wilkinsburg police officer about 1 a.m. on Dec. 22. Two officers responded to a call for a man with a gun at Penn Avenue and Wood Street; when they pursued him, he fired one shot at them. An officer returned fire, hitting Talley seven times.
The shooting is under investigation, and Superintendent McDonough ignored the question.
However, moments later, a group of people who had been standing near the front door moved into the center of the room and attempted to unfurl a red flag. They carried with them red and white flyers that talked about police brutality.
“We demand a permanent record of officers who have committed brutal acts,” the papers read. “We demand the identity of the officer who murdered Romir Talley.”
A Wilkinsburg detective at the meeting, Superintendent McDonough and county police Inspector Chris Kearns worked to force the protesters out of the Civically Inc. space on Wood Street, as one of the people shouted, “Don’t touch me.”
After the people had been removed, Wilkinsburg police Chief Cookie Coleman shouted at the rest of those gathered for the meeting.
“Everyone one of you that know me know I’ve put my life on the line for 43 years,” she said.
The Talley shooting, she continued, is the only officer-involved shooting they’ve had in many years.
“My officers are damn good officers,” she said. “What we need to be talking about is these damn terrorists terrorizing our community. And that’s what they are: urban terrorists.
“I don’t go for outlaw cops.”
But, she continued, “You’re not going to run roughshod over me and my cops.”
Chief Coleman told the group that her officers have a good relationship with the people of Wilkinsburg, and when she concluded, the audience applauded.
Throughout the forum, several people spoke about various programs happening in the community to
help reduce crime and violence.
Among them was Ross A. Watson Jr., the program manager for the gun violence prevention program at the Allegheny County Health Department, who spoke about Cure Violence.
While the program is just getting started, Mr. Watson told the group that it looks at gun violence as a disease model and treats it like a health crisis.
The idea of it, he said, is to “interrupt transmission of the disease of violence.”
Previous studies, he said, show that violence has been reduced in some areas from 30% to 70% by Cure Violence, which is funded in Wilkinsburg by a two-year grant.
Mr. Watson said staff members are being hired and that training for staff and volunteers will start soon.
“It’s about protecting this community -— to feel safe, be safe, stay safe.”
Ms. Garrett is excited by the work being done in Wilkinsburg and hopes to sustain it. Public safety forums are scheduled for the last Tuesday of each month.
“This can’t be a one-time thing,” she said. “There’s no magic wand or one solution that’s going to change our epidemic.
“We have to continue this energy and action.”
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. did not attend the forum, nor did he send a representative.
Mike Manko, a spokesman for the office, said “Investigations and enforcement are police functions, and they are in the best position to comment on those issues.”
But Ms. Garrett called their absence puzzling.
“How are you not fit to attend a community public safety meeting when you’re the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the county?” she asked. “If there are people who don’t want to be at the table, don’t be at the table. We’re going to keep moving forward.”
“This [public safety forum] can’t be a onetime thing. There’s no magic wand or one solution that’s going to change our epidemic. We have to continue this energy and action.”
— Marita Garrett, mayor of Wilkinsburg