Liz Navratil
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — The day after a pregnant woman was killed in Brighton Heights, another woman who lost her pregnant daughter and son in separate shootings met with the mayor and police chief to discuss violence in Pittsburgh.
Jacqueline Graham lost her daughter, Shalane Graham, in a shooting in 2008 and her son, Christopher Richardson, in a shooting in Oakland this year. The timing of the meeting was coincidental, city officials said.
Police Chief Cameron McLay said he heard Ms. Graham’s story for the first time Wednesday afternoon.
“Certainly, Jacqueline’s horrific experience is illustrative of what I’ve been talking about in terms of this is what’s happening here in Pittsburgh. The violence is not OK,” he said.
The chief said he hopes he offered Ms. Graham some assurance, and he intends to unveil plans to help curb the violence in the coming weeks.
Chief McLay said he plans, among other things, to launch a new online interactive that will allow people to search for crime statistics by date ranges and neighborhoods so that they can track what is occurring close to their homes. He said the bureau also plans to publish a quarterly report that will offer analysis on the crime statistics. Some of that work, he said, will be done by a new crime analyst hired by the bureau.
Ms. Graham and Mayor Bill Peduto, who was en route to an event in East Liberty, left without speaking to reporters.
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