DRUGS GET BLAME FOR PITTSBURGH'S RISING MURDER RATE

PITTSBURGH - With four months left in the year, Pennsylvania's second
largest city has already seen more murders this year than in 2000.

Early Sunday, men barged into a bar and opened fire, wounding four and
killing one, police said. The death of 25-year-old Robert Threet gave
Pittsburgh its 44th murder, one more than all of last year.

Community activists and academics blame a host of problems, including an
influx of drugs, particularly heroin, more guns on the street and turf
battles for more murders. Police say no one factor has contributed to the rise.

"The impression I have is that a good part of it is in the increased
traffic of drugs and heroin," said Alfred Blumstein, a Carnegie Mellon
University professor who specializes in criminology. "There is a lot of
battling among individuals for turf in those markets."

And a steady supply of firearms is making the battle more bloody, Blumstein
said.

"When guns become plentiful there is an incentive to strike preemptively -
to get somebody who might be seen as hostile before he gets you," said
Blumstein, who served as chairman of the National Academy of Sciences'
Committee on Research on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice from
1979 to 1984.

All but five of the people murdered in Pittsburgh this year were shot, and
Pittsburgh police have nearly doubled gun arrests from last year.

Pittsburgh Assistant Chief Charles Moffatt said drug and turf wars have
contributed to more murders in the city, but "we have everything."

"We had a recent shooting - and it could have very well ended in a homicide
- - because one person broke another person's sunglasses," Moffatt said.

Even with the increase, Pittsburgh still hasn't gotten close to the 83
killed in 1993.

Mayor Tom Murphy was out of town and could not be reached for comment by
The Associated Press. A spokesman did not return phone calls for comment.

Other Pennsylvania cities haven't seen similar increases.

Philadelphia has had 168 homicides this year, 32 fewer than this time last
year and not on pace to tie the 319 people killed last year. Three people
have been murdered in Allentown and two in Erie, the state's third and
fourth largest cities respectively.

Officials in Philadelphia said murders are down partly due to the
department's crime sweeps as part of Operation Sunrise, which began in June
1998. The program targets areas in the city where 40 percent of homicides
occurred.

"We were able to reduce trafficking and we were able to reduce homicides.
They go hand in hand with one another," said Sgt. Roland Lee.