An 18-year-old Pittsburgh man is facing robbery and weapons charges after police say he flashed a handgun and stole a gold chain from someone waiting at a bus stop near Ross Park Mall, then boarded a public transit bus headed toward the city. Robert Broadus, of the city's Allentown neighborhood, was arrested in connection with the incident outside the Ross Township mall.
According to the criminal complaint, Broadus displayed a handgun and stole the gold chain from a person at a bus stop on Ross Park Mall Drive, as first reported by WTAE. The complaint states Broadus threatened the victim before climbing aboard a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus headed toward the city.
That plan didn't hold up. Transit police located the bus, and the victim was able to identify Broadus as the suspect, according to the same complaint. He now faces charges of robbery, simple assault and carrying a firearm without a license.
What the Charges Could Mean
Under Pennsylvania law, carrying a firearm in a vehicle or carrying it concealed without a license is classified as a felony of the third degree. The statute also provides a first-degree misdemeanor category for certain otherwise-eligible people with no other criminal violation, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The state's robbery statute likewise carries felony weight, with certain subsections classified as second-degree felonies and others as third-degree felonies, per the same legislative text.
It remains unclear exactly when the alleged robbery took place or whether the handgun or the stolen chain were ever recovered — details not addressed in the reported complaint. There's also no public statement yet from Broadus, an attorney, the victim or Ross Township police beyond what's laid out in the charging documents.
Not the First Bus-Related Robbery Report This Year
This isn't the only alleged robbery tied to a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus to make headlines recently. In June 2025, a Pittsburgh teen was arrested in connection with an armed robbery aboard a PRT bus, according to WPXI. That followed an attempted robbery investigation involving a PRT bus the previous month, in which officials said one of the juveniles involved dropped a handgun onto the bus floor, the station reported separately.
Ross Park Mall itself has drawn police attention before. In October 2025, WPXI reported that a vehicle suspected of involvement in a shootout at the mall had been found and taken for processing, though no arrests had been made at that point. CBS Pittsburgh also reported on an earlier incident in which two people were arrested after shots were fired at the mall while police searched for a third suspect. Those episodes remain separate from the current robbery case involving Broadus.
