Pittsburgh police avert nightclub shooting during patrol

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A group of quick-thinking Pittsburgh police officers thwarted a nightclub shooting Sunday at a Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar intersection.

Two officers were on surveillance around 5 a.m. outside the nightclub known as Batcave, or just The Cave, near the intersection of Lincoln and Lemington avenues. They said that they spotted a man, later identified as Penn Hills resident Willie Todd, acting strangely.

Todd, who was wearing a black hat, gray T-shirt and jeans, weaved between parked vehicles and was shoving his hands into the front of his pants, according to a police report. He stopped, then squatted down and stood up multiple times.

The officers radioed a sergeant in police headquarters, who positioned a city camera on him. Todd, the sergeant saw, was carrying a silver handgun.

Todd started to conceal himself between vehicles when, gun now visible in his hand, he took what police called an athletic stance, the report said. The officers’ training told them that, due to the stance, he was fixed to open fire.

The officers sprung into action, shouting for Todd to put his hands in the air. Todd complied, tossing the gun at a car’s tire nearby. He was arrested without incident.

“We try to get ahead of the violence,” Zone 5 Commander Stephen Vinansky told the Tribune-Review Monday. “This time, these officers couldn’t have done better.”

“I truly believe these guys stopped somebody from being shot.”

The averted shooting was part of a proactive patrol by eight Pittsburgh police officers last weekend in the Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood. Police say they have responded to numerous calls, specifically from near the intersection of Lincoln and Lemington avenues, for shots fired, aggravated assaults and homicides.

On Dec. 1, East Hills resident Temani Lewis, 21, and her 4-year-old daughter, Kaari Thompson, were gunned down at the intersection’s Brooklyn Food Market.

Similar proactive patrols have been held in Homewood and East Hills, he added. When former city intern Alexander Yerkey, 26, was shot and killed March 26 while riding his bike through Bloomfield, police conducted proactive patrols there.

On Sunday, police charged Todd, 31, with tampering with evidence, public drunkenness, and two firearms counts.

Todd is now in Allegheny County Jail. His preliminary hearing is Aug. 31.

Police on the proactive patrol also arrested Lawrence Segars, 48, of Edgewood. He was charged with receiving stolen property, two firearms charges, drug possession and tampering with evidence, court records show.

Segars posted $50,000 bond Sunday and was released from county jail, court records show. His preliminary hearing also is Aug. 31.

While on foot early Sunday, a Pittsburgh police officer saw Segars’ car, a black Chrysler 300 with Pennsylvania plates, parked on Lemington Avenue, according to a criminal complaint in the case. The officer immediately spotted a Glock handgun inside the car in plain view, sitting in the vehicle’s center console.

Segars, possibly carrying the gun, walked away from the vehicle and attempted to distance himself from patrolling officers, the complaint said. He was stopped and detained.

Police said Segars cannot carry a weapon because he has a criminal record. Court records show Segars pleaded guilty on Dec. 14, 2009 to drug and firearm possession. At that time, District Judge Jill E. Rangos sentenced him to five to 10 years in prison.

The firearm in the Chrysler, a Glock 22 .40 handgun with an extended magazine, was modified with an illegally installed switch, which allows it to shoot at a fully automatic rate, police said. The firearm was later confirmed to be stolen.

Pittsburgh police said they also found a Mylar bag of THC gummies, Ecstasy pills and a knotted baggie of marijuana in Segars’ car.

The two officers who arrested Todd Sunday have made 17 gun arrests in the last month alone, Vinansky said.

Justin Vellucci is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Justin at [email protected].

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