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.<\/p>\n
All told, seven different law enforcement agencies have charged Giovanni Moore 16 times since Dec. 22, when he was evicted from his mother\u2019s house after a judge approved a restraining order against him.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh police officer who charged the homeless man in the recent Golden Triangle attacks on two women and a man called him \u201cthe main cause of a series of violent crimes in the Downtown area.\u201d But the officer\u2019s boss, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Timothy Novosel, was hesitant Tuesday to endorse that description.<\/p>\n
Piecing together the breadcrumb trail of Moore\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
A sheriff\u2019s deputy cited Moore last month for smoking marijuana in the hallway of Pittsburgh\u2019s Municipal Courts Building.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe citation and affidavit speak for themselves,\u201d Mike Manko, spokesman for the Allegheny County Sheriff\u2019s Office, said Tuesday. \u201cNo need for additional comment.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were charges for stealing snacks \u2014 Gummie Ringz, Dr. Pepper \u2014 this summer at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Castle Shannon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had one and then, an hour later, Mt. Lebanon had another one, right at the Shop N\u2019 Save. Back-to-back,\u201d Castle Shannon police Chief Ken Truver said. \u201cThat type of clientele always seems to make its way to Castle Shannon \u2014 we\u2019re right on the \u2018T.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Moore also racked up charges by Port Authority Police and departments in Homestead, Munhall and Mt. Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh police arrested him Friday and charged him with snatching cash from a woman\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
An hour later, Moore tried swiping a woman\u2019s bag and punched a man in the face in a Downtown plaza, according to a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
He remains in the Allegheny County Jail on a combined $30,000 in bail, court records show.<\/p>\n
A violent turn <\/p>\n
The incidents took a violent turn Aug. 5.<\/p>\n
Shortly before 5 a.m. that Wednesday, police said, Moore walked up to a man waiting Downtown for a bus \u2014 Pittsburgh Regional Transit\u2019s 82-Lincoln route, set to stop at Wood Street and Sixth Avenue.<\/p>\n
Police said Moore punched the victim, identified in court records as Harry Schultz, in the face and then tried to tackle him.<\/p>\n
Then Moore ran \u2014 stopping at the Wood Street subway station, where his \u201cerratic and unpredictable behavior\u201d included dropping his pants and exposing himself, according to a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n
Schultz was taken to UPMC Shadyside hospital but not seriously injured, the complaint said. He could not be reached Tuesday for comment.<\/p>\n
Ten hours later, around 3:30 p.m., Moore \u201cthrew a cup of water on an unprovoked victim\u201d on Grant Street, a criminal complaint said. Port Authority police charged him that same day with open lewdness.<\/p>\n
Novosel, the police commander whose Zone 2 includes Downtown, said stranger assaults are unusual in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen here often,\u201d Novosel said. \u201cBut, when it does, it\u2019s upsetting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Novosel declined comment on the specific allegations against Moore.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
6 arrests in August<\/p>\n
Moore has been arrested multiple times this year in Pittsburgh \u2014 six times in August alone.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 6, he approached a city police officer working a private security detail on Downtown\u2019s Wood Street \u2014 just footsteps away from the police bureau\u2019s Downtown substation, according to a complaint.<\/p>\n
Moore wanted the officer to share his opinion on a drug transaction, which the officer called in court paperwork \u201ca crack deal gone wrong,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n
A fight ensued between Moore and a second man. Criminal charges followed.<\/p>\n
On May 10, Pittsburgh police officers on proactive patrol arrested Moore for dealing crack cocaine near the corner of Liberty Avenue and Ninth Street \u2014 part of the city\u2019s central business district that an officer said in court paperwork was \u201cplagued with narcotics use and sales.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police took Moore to the Allegheny County Jail. A district judge released him the next day, court records show.<\/p>\n
On May 31, police again arrested Moore on new drug charges \u2014 at the same intersection. He\u2019s headed to trial next month in Allegheny County Common Pleas court on both sets of charges, court records show.<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s preliminary hearing on Friday\u2019s Downtown attacks is scheduled for Sept. 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are blaming a 19-year-old Munhall man for a monthslong crime spree through Pittsburgh, the Mon Valley and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-272277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272277","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=272277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}