'This stuff has got to stop': Pittsburgh police, community members plead for end to surging violence
Jun. 25—Preeti Tuli wept Thursday, baring her pain to strangers, TV cameras and Pittsburgh as a whole, hoping the reality of her grief might help stem the surge of citywide shootings, like the one that took her son in February.
"He was a good kid," she said of her son, Ahmir Tuli, who was 18. "He didn't deserve it. None of these kids do."
The teen was on his break outside his family's Strip District bar/restaurant, Preeti's Pitt, on Feb. 21 when he was shot in the back of the head. A man who had just been throw out of the bar, Howard Hawkins, has been charged by police with the shooting. He remains a fugitive.
Tuli — along with Pittsburgh police brass, federal agents and victim advocates — gathered at the Center for Victims on East Carson Street to both demand and pledge an end to rising city violence.
In the first six months of 2021, there have been 31 homicides — a 55% increase over the same time span in 2020, said Assistant Chief Lavonnie Bickerstaff. Twenty-nine have been shootings. Non-fatal shootings, she said, have also increased: up 24% so far this year at 76.
There are children among the dead and injured: four 17-year-olds have been killed, and two more victims were 15. Three others were 18-year-old boys. Fourteen other children have been injured by gunfire, including an 11-year-old and a 6-year-old.
"We shouldn't have a 6-year-old girl shot in a car," said police Chief Scott Schubert. "We shouldn't have an 18-year-old young man shot outside his family's business. We shouldn't have a 15-year-old shot multiple times in front of his house.
"This is done," he said.
As spring has bled into summer, the violence hasn't slowed. Early Thursday, a woman was shot in the leg in the Hill District. On Wednesday, two people were shot on the North Side, one fatally. This week, police asked for help identifying a suspect in a killing last month.
"I'm tired of pulling up to scenes and seeing families hurt and communities grieving," said Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich.
He admitted neither he nor the department as a whole have all the answers, but he pledged that his department along with community support and federal partners will turn the tide.
"It's going to be a long fight, and it's going to probably be a very long summer," he said.
Gun violence has risen across the country over the past several months after a downturn at the start of the pandemic.
"We know it's occurring across the country in other cities," said Chief Scott Schubert. "But we're not other cities. We're the city of Pittsburgh."
In an effort to stop the rising violence, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is creating a firearms trafficking unit in the city, and two agents will work with city police to track and stop illegal guns.
Matthew Varisco, ATF special agent in charge of the Philadelphia Field Division, said Pittsburgh police are on pace to recover 700 to 800 firearms this year. They've averaged 722 per year from 2018 to 2020, he said.
Schubert said people must also be willing to talk.
"Come on, let's be real. You tell me people don't know who has guns? You tell me with these different shootings that have happened, a friend, a family member, someone else didn't see that gun at some point and do nothing?" he said. "This stuff has got to stop."
Tuli, too, said people need to talk. She noted that the man accused of killing her son remains on the run, and his girlfriend is alleged to have helped him flee the scene.
She begged for the violence to stop.
"All the violence — I hate watching the news. Every time I look at the news, I see kids getting killed," she said. "People need to start talking. I'm tired of going to the grave to talk to my son. I just want to touch him. Hold him. And I've been stripped of that."
Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 412-380-8519, mguza@triblive.com or via Twitter .
