POLICE: PITTSBURGH STREET WAR RISKS INNOCENT LIVES

Rival groups and drug dealers are using Pittsburgh's streets to fight
a war, with retaliatory shootings that put innocent people at risk,
police and violence prevention experts said Tuesday.

A fatal shooting last month outside a busy Downtown daycare center --
which led to a Washington County man being gunned down in a case of
mistaken identity -- was one of 23 homicides in the city this year,
compared to 13 at this time in 2006, according to Pittsburgh police.

In April, city police responded to nine homicides and more than a
half-dozen shootings that critically injured the victims.

"April was a deadly, bloody month," said Pittsburgh police Cmdr.
Thomas Stangrecki.

"A lot of these shootings stem from rivalries between neighborhoods
and groups, turf wars and drugs. Tensions are very high in some
neighborhoods right now. One shooting doesn't go unnoticed and
sometimes spawns retaliation shootings."

The nonprofit anti-violence group One Vision One Life, whose members
try street-level intervention, rallied yesterday on North Charles
Street on the North Side to bring attention to the recent shootings
and to urge drug dealers, gang members and warring groups to lay down
their weapons.

"We're losing our young black men at such an alarming rate that
they're approaching extinction," said El Gray, program director for
One Vision One Life. "The war is not in Iraq or Afghanistan or Iran.
It's right here on the streets of Pittsburgh. It's a turf war, a gang
war, a drug war, and a retaliation shooting war. And it has to stop."

When Jibreel Scott, 27, of the Hill District, was ambushed and killed
April 19 near a Smithfield Street daycare center, police said his
brother, Obataiye Scott, sought revenge in Washington. The man who
shot his brother seven times at close range was wearing dreadlocks.

On April 21, Washington police said Scott, 35, fatally shot Shawn
Allen, 32, and critically injured Michael Brown, 42, who also wears
dreadlocks. But neither man had any connection to the shooting of
Jibreel Scott, police said.

On Friday, Jibreel Scott's cousin, Thomas Howard, was gunned down
inside the Hill District apartment the two men shared, Stangrecki
said. Police don't know if Howard's slaying came in retaliation for
the Washington County shooting or if it was connected to Jibreel Scott's death.

Yvonna Hammock, who lives on North Charles Street and attended the
rally, said her 23-year-old nephew was gunned down in Homewood last
year. She said she's tired of hearing reports of more shootings and deaths.

"Our young men are wiping each other out," Hammock said. "We're
filling up the cemeteries and the jails, and we have to figure out a
way to stop the violent war that is raging in our city."

Diane Davis lives on North Charles Street with her two grandchildren,
ages 7 and 10. She said she hears gunshots at night and prays a
bullet doesn't find its way through her doors, windows or walls.

"The amount of violence out there is scary and unbelievable," Davis
said. "Bullets don't have names on them, and no one is immune."