Even as the county’s homicide rate climbed inexorably to its 120-victim total for the year, several government initiatives were put forth as methods to curb the violence.

NATE HARPER

Though some had an immediate impact, their long-term effectiveness remains suspect in light of the highest death toll since 2003’s record 125 homicides. Other initiatives launched later in the year and promising sustained results, are too new to assess.

In February, a week after 12-year-old Jolesa Barber was killed and her mother critically wounded, when North Charles Street Crips members Anthony Wilson, 30, and Michael Gist, 15, riddled their North Side home with bullets in an attempt on her brother’s life, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A Zappala, Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper and One Vision One Life Director Richard Garland arranged a “gang truce” between the Crips and the rival Trey 8s gang.

There was not another “gang related” shooting on the North Side until March 27 when 23-year-old Richard White was shot at three times on Juniata Street. In between, there were nine other homicides in Pittsburgh and five others outside the city.

On Feb. 5, the D.A., Pittsburgh police, and federal agents staged a raid in Homewood that netted 30 guns and the arrests of eight men—all under 25—on gun and drug charges. The next killing in Homewood did not occur until March 30 when 22-year-old John Allen was shot outside Mac Can Do’s Bar.

RICKY BURGESS

On Feb. 20, Pittsburgh police announced the creation of a “Gang Intelligence Task Force” designed to identify the estimated 900 members of the city’s 40 gangs and connect individual gang members to each other using a new computer database.

Between February and June when both the city and county announced their annual summer work programs for at-risk youth, the county’s homicide total had reached 41, with 26 occurring in Pittsburgh.

The next anti-violence initiative wasn’t until Sept. 19, when Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Councilman Ricky Burgess announced the Pittsburgh Initiative to Reduce Crime, modeled on work by David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. By then, county homicides totaled 79, with the city accounting for 47.

Kennedy’s model, which would rely on the Intelligence Task Force data and the county’s network of social service providers, promises violence reduction of up to 70 percent in the worst areas. So far his method has succeeded in Chicago, Long Island, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Boston. Ravenstahl said results would be evident within six months.

As the year drew to a close, Pittsburgh Council members Bruce Kraus and Bill Peduto introduced legislation requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen guns within 24 hours or face stiff fines and possible jail time.

The legislation, they said, was designed to reduce the number of guns on the street by targeting straw purchasers, who legally buy guns, resell them to criminals, and later—when they are used in a crime—claim they were “lost or stolen.”

Despite running contrary to a 1996 state Supreme Court ruling that “the General Assembly, not city councils” is responsible for writing gun legislation, Pittsburgh council passed the legislation. It became law when Ravenstahl declined to either sign or veto the legislation within the required time period.

(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)