{"id":248181,"date":"2026-07-21T02:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/248181\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T02:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:33:22","slug":"woman-accused-of-threatening-taxi-driver-with-knife-on-way-to-pittsburgh-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/248181\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman accused of threatening taxi driver with knife on way to Pittsburgh airport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Woman accused of threatening taxi driver with knife on way to Pittsburgh airport<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTomorrow is *** severe weather alert day. We&#8217;re eyeing two rounds of storms and breaking it down hour by hour. Severe weather this weekend took out roads and bridges across Westmoreland County. You can see behind me specifically here in Derry Township. Tonight on Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News 4, we talked to people in these communities who were in the middle of that weather and why they have growing concern about these closures moving forward. The Commercial Street bridge has been slid into place, and Pendant says the project is ahead of schedule, the latest tonight. Pittsburgh&#8217;s action news port starts now with breaking news. That breaking news in Pittsburgh&#8217;s Carrick neighborhood tonight. *** SWAT situation happening on the 2700 block of Brownsville Road. Pittsburgh Public Safety says the road is closed in the area right now. No word yet on what sparked this situation, but we are on the scene right now and we&#8217;re working together more details. Let&#8217;s now take *** live look on *** crystal clear Pittsburgh day. The skyline through action can, well, not quite crystal clear. It&#8217;s getting there though. However, the nice weather we had today short lived as we get ready for possibly intense severe weather tomorrow around lunchtime and then once again in the evening. And on that note, we thank you for joining us here at 5 o&#8217;clock. I&#8217;m Andrew Stokey. I&#8217;m Kelly Sasso. In comparison, I guess, to last week, it&#8217;s certainly looking clear. Uh, meteorologists still sweat us here, but, uh, Joe, before we talk about the storms tomorrow, air quality is still not great today. That&#8217;s right. We&#8217;re still in that code orange air quality alert is kind of been that merry go round. We get the smoke, then we get storms to kind of help to clear things out, and that will be the case tomorrow, but we&#8217;re going to fire up some severe thunderstorms potentially across Western Pennsylvania tomorrow. I know Saturday rocked us in some neighborhoods. More of us could be impacted as we go through the day tomorrow. Models indicating there could be two rounds, but still some question marks of which round will be the most severe as it goes through midday and then approaching the evening hours, damaging winds by far the big concern. But we also can&#8217;t rule out tornadoes and even some flash flooding as you&#8217;re waking up tomorrow. Some neighborhoods may be dealing with *** few hit or miss showers, even *** road. Grumble of thunder. Not expecting severe weather though early in the day that really starts to get fired up as we approach midday, talking about after 10:00 a.m., potentially through about 2 o&#8217;clock in the afternoon. That initial wave will tell us *** lot about how the rest of the day will unfold as it may knock out some of the severe ingredients from the atmosphere. It has less coverage. It&#8217;s less intense. We may have to monitor things *** little bit later into the day as we go through the afternoon and evening. I&#8217;m not saying that we&#8217;re going to be completely quiet as we go closer to sundown, but it may be *** little less severe for us as we go throughout the day. So tomorrow isissippi weather alert day for *** reason. Again, leading the way will be those damaging winds, also flash flooding, especially if you live near and south of I-70. Also *** tornado and hail threat. I&#8217;ll be breaking it down for you hour by hour. So you can plan ahead to stay safe. Coming up in *** few minutes. OK, Jill, thanks so much. And continuing weather coverage now, and the National Weather Service spent part of its day assessing the aftermath of those two tornadoes that touched down in Westmoreland County. Both of them formed in Derry Township. Westmoreland Bureau reporter Ed Diorio joining us live from one of the spots where *** tornado did touch down. Ed, what can you tell us about what&#8217;s around you there? Well, Andrew, Kelly, this is Red Cut Lodge Road in Derry Township, and you can see what&#8217;s left of what happened over the weekend. It&#8217;s not much thanks to the work of some Dairy Township maintenance workers, but they were able to get this road fully reopened just earlier today this morning, and as you mentioned, this was one where or nearby where one of 2 EF0 tornadoes came through. And while those with the National Weather Service said they could have been worse, they&#8217;re just as worried about what could be coming tomorrow. The rotation strengthened pretty quickly within the storm and it produced two tornadoes. Based on surveys on Monday and minimal damage, those two ended up being categorized by the NWS as EF 0s. Both of them appear to have been on the weaker side, somewhere in the 70 mile an hour range. However, that brought the total amount of tornadoes this season to over 20. Normal is down around 6. Um, but I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ve really had *** normal year in several years. Some of the worst damage came from flooding over the weekend. Bill Heffer lives along State Route 1027, which is closed indefinitely. It is very inconvenient right now because we do have kids that go to school. The school bus uses this road. So I don&#8217;t know what we&#8217;re going to do here. Route 259 in Fairfield Township is also closed. Pend Dot engineers were out assessing the damage on Monday. We&#8217;re going to do everything we can to, to expedite it, to get everything moving, uh, while we do it in the safest manner possible. They may be back out again on Wednesday based on what NWS is forecasting on Tuesday. There is potential for *** tornado, for *** large hail, and for *** damaging wind for many of those storms. Kramer advised that if people see more flooding on Tuesday, people should turn around and not drown. Things could evolve very quickly tomorrow and potentially be quite potent. Now something that what goes into the decision from NWS about these EF0 tornadoes and defining them is looking at things like limbs, uproots, and some of the debris that you see here. You can still tell even though Red Cut, the road we&#8217;re along here is still open, you can tell that it was pretty serious along this route, and we&#8217;ll see what happens after Tuesday. Covering Westmoreland County here in Derry Township, Ed Diorio, Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News 4. Let&#8217;s hope for the best, Ed. Thank you. Let&#8217;s take *** live look at drone 4 flying over our new Commercial Street bridge, now slim the place going into our second week of the closure. *** crews began that process yesterday, slying at 96 ft then and the remaining 6 ft this afternoon. Do you think anyone stopped to take *** deep breath and say it fits? We did it right. We want to show you this too. This shot is so cool. *** time lapse look at that progress. The bridge slid at *** pretty impressive 19 ft an hour today. Pendant gave some good news that the closure could actually be over ahead of schedule, and that&#8217;s the best news of all. Pittsburgh&#8217;s action news for our reporter Kayleigh Gunderson joining us live from Squirrel Hill with the very latest from Pendant on the amazing progress, Kaylee. Well, Andrew Kelly, yeah, amazing progress for sure. They said the new bridge could be opened by the middle of next week, several days ahead of schedule, and take *** look. This is why that new bridge already slid into place where it will be officially secured. John Meyer, senior assistant construction manager for Pendon, explained how careful crews will have to be in this next part of the process. We&#8217;ve built that bridge on temporary foundations and so all the stresses of *** bridge are built into that structure and the the deck itself so when we get to that final location we want to match that that way you&#8217;re not introducing any stresses to the bridge that it&#8217;s not accustomed to at this point. The bridge was slid into place over the course of 7 hours yesterday, then moved the final 6 ft today. Now the focus has shifted to securing the bridge into place. District 11 executive for Penda Jason Zheng said the bridge has to be put in the perfect position before anchor bolts can be dropped into place and routed. As of today, Zheng says the two highest risk operations of this project are behind them. The implosion in my, in my opinion, was, was the highest risk, uh, operation with the new bridge next to it. That went off great. And now the, uh, the slide, which was incredibly, uh, complex and technical, um, simple by nature, but complex to pull it off, uh, and, and I can&#8217;t thank, I can&#8217;t say enough about the expertise in the field that made that happen. Now the rest of the work will be focused on the surface of the bridge, so that&#8217;s paving, electrical work that still needs done, and the commercial Street will not reopen right when the bridge does. That will still take *** few days to clean up some of the debris that remains down below in that area, but they are hoping to get that road opened by. August 3rd covering Allegheny County tonight in Squirrel Hill South, Kayleigh Gunderson, Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News 4. Progress looks good so far. Kayleigh, thanks so much. Well, state police filed charges against *** man for *** crash last week that killed *** motorcyclist. Police were called to Lober Road in Sewickley Township on Thursday. When *** driver found the motorcyclist unresponsive in the middle of the road, Roy Holiday was pronounced dead at the hospital. Investigators say the victim&#8217;s girlfriend later called police, saying the truck in the surveillance footage was left at her ex-husband&#8217;s home. She also told police Holiday and Ryan Thompson had some heated text exchanges right before this crash. Thompson is now in the Westmoreland County Jail. His bail was denied. New tonight, the city of Washington is investigating vandalism during *** rally at the courthouse. Mayor Jojo Burgess says during the John Lewis Good Trouble rally, he saw people trying to write on the walls of Congressman Guy Resenthaler&#8217;s office. He told them the behavior was unacceptable, and they left. When the mayor came back, he found the suspects returned and wrote on the walls. The city is now looking through surveillance footage to identify the people responsible. All right, well this was the breaking news you saw during Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News for noon. Allegheny County spokesperson was placed on administrative leave. It&#8217;s all over her comments she made in *** social media video. Now Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News for reporter Yasmin Rodriguez has been digging into this story all day long and joins us now with the very newest developments, Yasmin. Andrew Kelly, like you mentioned, the county this afternoon did confirm that spokesperson Abigail Gardner has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal review. Now this all stems from comments made on her social media account regarding comments made by KDKA radio personality Colin Dunlap and *** post that he shared to his social media account. Take *** look. This is the post on top of comments made that sparked it all. Colin Dunlap posting this on his Instagram. The unhealthy air quality and alerts to stay indoors. That post reads, I find the pandemonium about some smoky conditions in Western Pennsylvania for like 26 hours over the top, especially when you consider this. Some of our grandparents lived this every single day here and smoked *** pack *** day on top of it. Abigail Gardner then responding to that post with that video on social media, and we are going to show you that video, but we do want to warn you what she says can be upsetting. But for today, Colin Dunlap said we&#8217;re all soft, we&#8217;re overreacting. Our forefathers used to be outside in the smog and smoke *** pack on top of it. And to that, I say, you&#8217;re right, Colin. You should go outside and smoke *** pack on *** bridge, and then jump. Have *** great weekend, everyone. Stay. Now Gardner releasing *** statement this afternoon saying quote, I made *** tasteless comment out of frustration and I apologize for my lapse in judgment. Suicide should not be *** topic that is joked about or used to insult others. My comments were out of line, and I especially apologize to the employees of Allegheny County that I did not. Hold myself to *** higher standard while representing the county, and Gardner told our partners at the Trib that the video was intended as *** joke and that Dunlap had *** rest in *** Morado and her staff for years, going on to say, quote, he doxed her home address and speculated about her pregnant before she announced it. Now this afternoon I also did reach out to Colin Dunlap in regard to the comments made about him and the now internal review that is going on. He told me he had no further comments to add covering Allegheny County in downtown Pittsburgh. Yasmin Rodriguez, Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News 4. New tonight, *** woman shot and killed last week in Clairton has been identified. She was 18 year old Jael Torres. Torres and another man were shot on Washington Avenue last Monday. No word tonight on any charges or arrests. Former Steeler running back Le&#8217;Veon Bell is in jail tonight reportedly due to not paying child support. TMZ reports he owes more than $50,000 in child support. Bell was arrested in Stark County, Ohio, which is just outside of Cleveland on charges coming out of Michigan. Well, *** shady side ramen business is vowing to rebuild, sharing some new pictures of the aftermath of *** fire over the weekend. Fuya Ramen says while the South Aiken Avenue shop is closed for now, their North Fayette location is open. No word tonight though on what caused that fire. The Allegheny County Health Department will treat 6 neighborhoods on Wednesday after recent mosquito samples tested positive for West Nile virus. This includes Edgewood, Garfield, Homewood, Point Breeze, Regent Square, and Wilkinsburg. The health department will be using *** pesticide on *** truck-mounted sprayer on Wednesday from 8 until 11 p.m.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Woman accused of threatening taxi driver with knife on way to Pittsburgh airport<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769019068_844_wtae.png\" class=\"lazyload lazyload-in-view branding\" alt=\"WTAE logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tUpdated: 10:23 PM EDT Jul 20, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtae.com\/article\/hearst-television-news-policy-statements\/14471973\" class=\"editorial-standards border-left\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA 26-year-old woman from Mt. Oliver is facing charges after police said she threatened a driver with a large knife and demanded he drive her and her daughter to Pittsburgh International Airport Monday afternoon. VIDEO: Top stories on Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News 4 Allegheny County police said at 12:44 p.m., an officer patrolling the departure curb at Pittsburgh International Airport was approached by a man who said he was a taxi driver. He told the officer a passenger in his vehicle had threatened him with a knife. The victim was able to identify the individual to the officer, who immediately confronted them. The individual was later identified as 26-year-old Mya Owens. Police determined the victim picked Owens up, along with her daughter, at a downtown Pittsburgh hotel. During the drive, Owens pulled out a large kitchen knife, threatened the victim, and demanded he drive her to the airport. Officers were later able to observe video from inside the vehicle showing the incident. The knife was also recovered from the backseat of the victim\u2019s vehicle.Owens is now facing multiple charges, including kidnapping, terroristic threats and corruption of minors. She was taken to the Allegheny County Jail pending arraignment. Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A 26-year-old woman from Mt. Oliver is facing charges after police said she threatened a driver with a large knife and demanded he drive her and her daughter to Pittsburgh International Airport Monday afternoon. <\/p>\n<p>VIDEO: Top stories on Pittsburgh&#8217;s Action News 4 <\/p>\n<p>Allegheny County police said at 12:44 p.m., an officer patrolling the departure curb at Pittsburgh International Airport was approached by a man who said he was a taxi driver. <\/p>\n<p>He told the officer a passenger in his vehicle had threatened him with a knife. <\/p>\n<p>The victim was able to identify the individual to the officer, who immediately confronted them. <\/p>\n<p>The individual was later identified as 26-year-old Mya Owens. <\/p>\n<p>Police determined the victim picked Owens up, along with her daughter, at a downtown Pittsburgh hotel. During the drive, Owens pulled out a large kitchen knife, threatened the victim, and demanded he drive her to the airport. <\/p>\n<p>Officers were later able to observe video from inside the vehicle showing the incident. The knife was also recovered from the backseat of the victim\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>Owens is now facing multiple charges, including kidnapping, terroristic threats and corruption of minors. <\/p>\n<p>She was taken to the Allegheny County Jail pending arraignment. <\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wtae.com\/article\/get-pittsburgh-s-action-news-4-on-the-go-wtae\/44045498\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wtae.com\/subscribe\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Woman accused of threatening taxi driver with knife on way to Pittsburgh airport Tomorrow is *** severe weather&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[900,13313,454,1941,6899,18884,4042,9955,73,6845,75,6846,74,106052,6967,890,420,2439,2184],"class_list":["post-248181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-action-news","tag-allegheny-county-police","tag-charge","tag-corruption","tag-daughter","tag-knife","tag-officer","tag-owens","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-airport","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-international-airport","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-taxi-driver","tag-vehicle","tag-victim","tag-video","tag-way","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}