February 13, 2023 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Map courtesy Allegheny County)
The funeral Mass for a McKeesport police officer killed in the line of duty on Feb. 6 will be restricted to family and invited friends and colleagues, officials have announced.
Officer Sean Sluganski, 32, will be interred Tuesday at Jefferson Memorial Cemetery in Jefferson Hills following a Mass of Christian Burial at 12 noon at St. Albert the Great Church in Baldwin Borough.
Police and county officials are asking residents to respect the wishes of the Sluganski family and not attend the church service, which is closed to the public. Although media will be permitted to cover events outside of the church, photography and video inside will not be permitted, a county spokesperson said.
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February 12, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
A McKeesport patrol car has been decorated with bunting and parked at the city’s war memorial on Lysle Boulevard in honor of Officer Sean Sluganski, 32, who died Feb. 6. A city man has been charged with fatally shooting Sluganski and seriously wounding Officer Chuck Thomas Jr., 35. (Tube City Almanac photo)
After the murder of Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire in January, North Hills attorney Ed Kress distributed signs throughout the community saying “We support our police.”
He was hoping not to have to repeat the gesture for a long time.
But Kress and former state Rep. Marc Gergely of White Oak, who were fraternity brothers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, found themselves pressed into service again after McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski was shot to death on Feb. 6, and fellow Officer Chuck Thomas Jr. was injured.
This weekend, they've been working hard to get up to 1,500 signs distributed along the planned route of Sluganski’s funeral on Tuesday.
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February 10, 2023 |
By Tom Leturgey | Posted in: Duquesne News
Duquesne City Council on Tuesday accepted the resignation of two police officers. Mayor R. Scott Adams thanked officers Joseph Hayes and Brian O’Toole for their service. Adams also wished the duo the best on their future endeavors.
Assistant Police Chief Kara Vance told council she has been working on obtaining an $88,000 grant for department upgrades, according to new City Manager Scott Crawford.
“She does the work,” he said. Vance has made steps to obtain a new police vehicle, and that is to be “rolled over” into a separate grant to increase the department’s fleet by three automobiles. The authorities are looking into the lease for the high-mileage vehicles, and Crawford promises more information as it becomes available.
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February 10, 2023 |
By Dianne Ribecca | Posted in: North Versailles Twp. News
A company that promises to help school districts control costs by reducing the amount of energy they consume made its pitch this week to the East Allegheny School Board.
At this month’s committee meeting, representatives of American Building Maintenance said engineering upgrades and other improvements could stretch the school district's budget further.
ABM said that an engineering walkthrough of East Allegheny High School and Logan Elementary School saw aging equipment that the school district could upgrade or replace to provide energy savings that will, in turn, offset the costs of upgrades, replacements and repairs.
For example, their recommendations included connecting time controls to exhaust fans in the school buildings and lighting, especially for lighting in the stadium.
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February 10, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Crime and Police News
The union representing McKeesport police has created a memorial fund to benefit the family of an officer killed Monday in the line of duty.
City police Officer Sean Sluganski, 32, a Baldwin native, died at the emergency room of UPMC McKeesport hospital following an encounter with a suspect on Grandview Avenue. Another officer, Charles Thomas Jr., 35, was seriously wounded and flown to UPMC Mercy Hospital, Uptown. He is now recovering at home.
Carl Bailey, president of Teamsters Local 205, based in White Oak, said the union was “shocked and saddened” by the attack on its members.
“Sean Sluganski served his community because he cared so deeply about it,” Bailey said in a prepared statement. “He was the personification of those values which compose the soul of the badge — honor, courage, loyalty, integrity, selflessness, the confidence of the community and public trust.”
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February 09, 2023 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Commentary-Editorial
(Submitted photo courtesy of Jonathan Stark)
Jonathan Stark is the owner of the People’s Bank Building and the Executive Building, Downtown, as well as several other commercial and residential properties around the city. He writes:
I’m not originally from McKeesport. When I try to explain to people why I love McKeesport, they don’t understand. They aren’t from McKeesport.
When my wife Jen and I moved to neighboring White Oak in 2005, I remember being totally impressed with the old architecture, beautiful homes and the stories about what many would agree was the best city in Allegheny County to grow up in at one time.
I was intrigued. I had never seen anything like it where I grew up in Westmoreland County.
I remember introducing myself to a few police officers when I bought my first downtown building in 2008 and asked them what I should expect. They told me that it’s a big city and has all the same problems that any big city has. I got to know those officers and became good friends with many of them and other firefighters, EMS, local politicians and residents.
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February 08, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A McKeesport police officer who was shot by a suspect on Monday afternoon will be laid to rest on Valentine’s Day.
A Mass of Christian burial for Sean Sluganski, 32, is scheduled for Tuesday at St. Albert the Great Church of Blessed Trinity Parish in Baldwin Borough.
Sluganski’s funeral arrangements are in charge of John F. Slater Funeral Home in Brentwood, which announced Wednesday that friends and family will be received from 12 noon to 8 p.m. Sunday and from 2 to 8 p.m. Monday.
Earlier, an Allegheny County spokeswoman asked members of the media to stop contacting the Sluganski family.
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February 08, 2023 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Politics & Elections
Unofficial returns indicate that Matt Gergely has been elected to the 35th District of the state’s General Assembly, giving Democrats control of the state house. (Submitted photo via Facebook)
Matt Gergely appears to be on track to become the Mon Valley’s next state representative, taking the seat once held by his brother, Marc.
With 97 percent of the vote counted, unofficial results from the Allegheny County Division of Elections show Gergely, a Democrat from McKeesport, with an insurmountable 73 percent to 25 percent lead over Don Nevills, Clairton Republican.
Former McKeesport Councilman Paul Shelly Jr. was running an independent write-in campaign. Write-in votes account for less than 2 percent of the vote, according to county elections officials.
Gergely will fill the unexpired term of former state Rep. Austin Davis, who resigned after being elected Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor.
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February 07, 2023 |
By Staff Reports | Posted in: Crime and Police News
A line of McKeesport police, fire and EMS vehicles prepares to leave the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office from Pittsburgh’s Strip District with the remains of slain police Officer Sean Sluganski. (Submitted photo special to Tube City Almanac)
An escort of McKeesport emergency vehicles carried the body of slain police Officer Sean Sluganski to a South Hills funeral home on Tuesday afternoon.
Sluganski, 32, who had served on the McKeesport police department for two years, died Monday following a shooting on Grandview Avenue.
Allegheny County police have charged Johnathan Jermia Morris, 31, with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, assault on a law-enforcement officer and attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer in the first degree in connection with the death of Sluganski and the wounding of fellow McKeesport police officer Charles Thomas Jr., 35.
Morris is in custody at a Pittsburgh hospital, awaiting arraignment.
Sluganski and Thomas were investigating a domestic disturbance at a home on Willow Street shared by Morris and his mother, Candace Tyler. In an affidavit, county detectives said that Tyler called police because Morris was suffering a mental health episode as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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February 07, 2023 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: Crime and Police News
The son of a former McKeesport police officer who was fired in 2021 has been charged in connection with the murder of a current police officer, and with wounding another.
Johnathan Jermia Morris, 31, is awaiting preliminary arraignment on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, assault on a law-enforcement officer and attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer in the first degree.
Morris is accused by Allegheny County police of fatally wounding McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski, 32, and injuring Officer Chuck Thomas Jr., 35, after they responded to a domestic dispute at the home of Morris’ mother, Candace Tyler.
Emergency personnel said Morris is currently under police guard at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Oakland, where he was flown following the incident Monday afternoon.
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