Downtown violence solutions sought

City, schools, transit officials perplexed

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh, Port Authority and city schools officials promised Wednesday that they would work together to try to stop Downtown violence following another shooting in the business district this week.

In the meantime, they stationed extra officers Downtown — something the city has tried before, with mixed success, after fights or shootings.

The officials’ comments came after Pittsburgh Public Schools student Denzel Glover, 16, of Allentown, was arraigned on charges that he shot another teenager at the Wood Street T station Tuesday afternoon. The victim, Ricky Moultrie, 17, who is not a student, was listed in stable condition at a hospital.

“The incident was deliberate,” Mayor Bill Peduto said. “A person came Downtown knowing where a person would be located and went to shoot them. There were police all throughout Downtown. We’ve already increased the number of officers that we have, and they were able to apprehend the suspect very quickly because they were there.”

City officials said they had already increased the police presence Downtown following other shootings and fights this summer, including one on the Fourth of July. Officials from the Pittsburgh police bureau, the public schools and the Port Authority, among others, have been discussing possible solutions to the violence.

“It’s a problem,” city public safety director Wendell Hissrich said, “but I don’t have all the answers right now. We’re dealing with that.”

Police Chief Cameron McLay is expected to meet with Pittsburgh Public Schools superintendent Anthony Hamlet today to discuss bus schedules and the possibility of stationing more school police officers near bus routes.

The mayor said officials have also been working to station Port Authority police officers along crowded stops, and the city police bureau’s intelligence unit has been working to follow teenagers on social media to try to quash retaliatory violence.

Officials said they had not determined a motive for Tuesday’s shooting.

City police Officer Antoine Davis was working off-duty at the Arby’s on Liberty Avenue when he heard a gunshot and people yelling. He ran in the direction of the commotion and saw Port Authority police officers tending to Ricky Moultrie, who was lying on the ground. “Anonymous, unidentified bystanders” pointed Officer Davis toward the shooter, and a bus pulled away as the officer arrived, according to a criminal complaint.

Someone provided police with a description of the shooter, and officials sent the description out to Port Authority bus drivers. A bus driver spotted someone who fit the description and stopped the bus near the intersection of Federal Street and North Avenue on the North Side.

Police detained Denzel Glover, and Officer Andrew Shipp began searching the surrounding area and found an orange-and-black backpack in a nearby alley. Police said surveillance showed the youth carrying an orange-and-

black backpack.

Inside the backpack, police found two bags of suspected marijuana, a worksheet with Denzel Glover’s name on it, notebooks and a .22-caliber revolver, according to a criminal complaint.

He has been charged as an adult with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, gun violations and recklessly endangering another person.