Police are blaming a 19-year-old Munhall man for a monthslong crime spree through Pittsburgh, the Mon Valley and the South Hills that they say began with petty offenses over the winter and culminated last week in brazen daylight assaults in the Downtown Cultural District.

All told, seven different law enforcement agencies have charged Giovanni Moore 16 times since Dec. 22, when he was evicted from his mother’s house after a judge approved a restraining order against him.

The Pittsburgh police officer who charged the homeless man in the recent Golden Triangle attacks on two women and a man called him “the main cause of a series of violent crimes in the Downtown area.” But the officer’s boss, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Timothy Novosel, was hesitant Tuesday to endorse that description.

Piecing together the breadcrumb trail of Moore’s alleged misdeeds found in court paperwork yields details of minor crimes like retail theft: swiping laundry detergent from a Giant Eagle in The Waterfront; stealing deodorant and fried chicken from a Mt. Lebanon supermarket.

A sheriff’s deputy cited Moore last month for smoking marijuana in the hallway of Pittsburgh’s Municipal Courts Building.

“The citation and affidavit speak for themselves,” Mike Manko, spokesman for the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, said Tuesday. “No need for additional comment.”

There were charges for stealing snacks — Gummie Ringz, Dr. Pepper — this summer at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Castle Shannon.

“We had one and then, an hour later, Mt. Lebanon had another one, right at the Shop N’ Save. Back-to-back,” Castle Shannon police Chief Ken Truver said. “That type of clientele always seems to make its way to Castle Shannon — we’re right on the ‘T.’ ”

Moore also racked up charges by Port Authority Police and departments in Homestead, Munhall and Mt. Lebanon.

Pittsburgh police arrested him Friday and charged him with snatching cash from a woman’s hand outside a Downtown convenience store. Police say he then assaulted her and another woman after they confronted him, and dragged one of the women down the street.

An hour later, Moore tried swiping a woman’s bag and punched a man in the face in a Downtown plaza, according to a criminal complaint.

He remains in the Allegheny County Jail on a combined $30,000 in bail, court records show.

A violent turn

The incidents took a violent turn Aug. 5.

Shortly before 5 a.m. that Wednesday, police said, Moore walked up to a man waiting Downtown for a bus — Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s 82-Lincoln route, set to stop at Wood Street and Sixth Avenue.

Police said Moore punched the victim, identified in court records as Harry Schultz, in the face and then tried to tackle him.

Then Moore ran — stopping at the Wood Street subway station, where his “erratic and unpredictable behavior” included dropping his pants and exposing himself, according to a criminal complaint.

Schultz was taken to UPMC Shadyside hospital but not seriously injured, the complaint said. He could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Ten hours later, around 3:30 p.m., Moore “threw a cup of water on an unprovoked victim” on Grant Street, a criminal complaint said. Port Authority police charged him that same day with open lewdness.

Novosel, the police commander whose Zone 2 includes Downtown, said stranger assaults are unusual in the neighborhood.

“It doesn’t happen here often,” Novosel said. “But, when it does, it’s upsetting.”

Novosel declined comment on the specific allegations against Moore.

Pittsburgh police spokeswomen did not respond to emails or phone calls Tuesday seeking comment on what Downtown-based officers did to safeguard the public. Court paperwork shows escalating misconduct by Moore in Pittsburgh, ramping up this month, that police said ended in violence.

6 arrests in August

Moore has been arrested multiple times this year in Pittsburgh — six times in August alone.

On Aug. 6, he approached a city police officer working a private security detail on Downtown’s Wood Street — just footsteps away from the police bureau’s Downtown substation, according to a complaint.

Moore wanted the officer to share his opinion on a drug transaction, which the officer called in court paperwork “a crack deal gone wrong,” the complaint said.

A fight ensued between Moore and a second man. Criminal charges followed.

On May 10, Pittsburgh police officers on proactive patrol arrested Moore for dealing crack cocaine near the corner of Liberty Avenue and Ninth Street — part of the city’s central business district that an officer said in court paperwork was “plagued with narcotics use and sales.”

Police took Moore to the Allegheny County Jail. A district judge released him the next day, court records show.

On May 31, police again arrested Moore on new drug charges — at the same intersection. He’s headed to trial next month in Allegheny County Common Pleas court on both sets of charges, court records show.

Moore’s preliminary hearing on Friday’s Downtown attacks is scheduled for Sept. 2.