DASHAWN RANKIN WAS KILLED WHILE RIDING HIS BIKE ON THE NORTH SIDE, SUNDAY, JUNE 25.
Pittsburgh continues to be plagued by gun violence
Two dead, several injured in six separate shooting incidents in less than 48 hours.
We’re not talking about Chicago.
We’re talking about Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh’s local television stations had to pull out a map to illustrate the senseless barrage of gunfire incidents that occurred throughout the city, beginning around 4 a.m. Sunday, June 25, until 10 p.m., Monday, June 26. Downtown, Homewood, North Side, Homewood again, Knoxville and East Hills. Add to that a shooting in the city of Duquesne and shots fired at an Amazon truck in Penn Hills within the same time frame, and one has to wonder just how safe they really are these days in Pittsburgh.
There have been more than 60 homicides in Allegheny County in the first six months of 2023, which is on par with last year’s pace. Pittsburgh has a new police chief, Larry Scirotto, who spent 23 years on the Pittsburgh streets as an officer. If anyone knows the Pittsburgh landscape, it’s Scirotto, which is partly why Mayor Ed Gainey selected him. The mayor also was wowed by Scirotto’s policing strategy to help stop a lot of the unnecessary gun violence happening. No one can expect Scirotto’s strategies to be fully implemented in his first few weeks on the job, but clearly, the criminals have no desire to stop their acts just because a new chief is in charge.
So far, no arrests have been publicly announced in any of the shootings in the June 25-26 time frame. Around 4 a.m. at William Penn Place and Sixth Avenue, Downtown, police found a man who was shot in the hip. He was transported to the hospital. Around 5 a.m., police responded to reports of multiple shots fired on Kelly Street in Homewood, outside of the Galaxy Lounge. Two men were shot, one was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Two hours later on Sunday, June 25, a 33-year-old man, Dashawn Rankin, was shot and killed while riding a bike along Federal Street on the North Side. Later that afternoon, a man was shot in the shoulder and neck on Kelly Street, this time near Frankstown Avenue.
On Monday morning, June 26, two men were found shot in Knoxville near Bausman Street around 4 a.m. And later that night, a man was found shot and killed on Wilner Drive in East Hills. He was identified as 24-year-old Earl Jordan.
In the Duquesne incident, a man was shot in the face on Duquesne Place Drive around 9 p.m. Sunday, June 25. And in the incident in Penn Hills, someone fired shots at an Amazon truck driver who was making deliveries on Newfield Drive around 3 p.m., Sunday, June 25.
Even though it’s officially summertime, a drive through Pittsburgh’s Black neighborhoods shows that fewer people are outside. Less kids are playing outside. Less adults are sitting on their porches. But who could blame them? Violence in Pittsburgh can happen at any time, any place. Many parents are telling their children to stay inside.
Shawnell Pinkston is a cousin of Rankin, who lost his life Sunday morning on the North Side. She told WPXI-TV (Channel 11): “Dashawn was a fun-loving guy. He’d give his shirt off for anyone.”
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