A man was hospitalized with facial and head injuries after a group of men attacked him in Verona on Halloween night, and police say the crowds of trick-or-treaters who filled the streets at the time may hold the key to solving the case. The assault happened around 7:46 p.m. in the 700 block of 2nd Street, a residential stretch where families were still out walking door to door when the violence broke out.
Officers responded to a report of a physical altercation involving a group of men at that time and location, according to WPXI. The victim suffered facial and head injuries during the assault, and medics took him to a Pittsburgh-area trauma center for treatment, the station reported. As TribLIVE first reported, the man was transported for care after police said he was assaulted by a group of other males in the 700 block of 2nd Street.
Trick-or-Treat Crowds May Have Seen It Happen
Verona Police Chief Thomas Dessell said the timing of the attack means there could be no shortage of potential eyewitnesses. He noted there was significant pedestrian activity during the incident because of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, per the same account from the station. That foot traffic is now central to the investigation, since officers believe the usual Halloween crowds may have put bystanders in exactly the right place to see something useful.
Investigators believe people in the area may have witnessed the incident or seen those involved before or after the attack, according to the WPXI report. Police have not identified the victim, the suspected attackers, or said whether anyone has been arrested. The department is asking anyone with information, photographs, video or surveillance footage to come forward, with the hope that someone's porch camera or phone video caught what happened on a street otherwise full of costumed kids and parents.
A Department Already Stretched Thin
The call for public help comes against the backdrop of a police force that has long struggled with staffing in the small Allegheny County borough. As of last year, Verona had just two full-time officers and three part-timers, according to earlier reporting from TribLive Community. Borough officials said at the time that they were working on hiring two new full-time officers to help the department cover shifts around the clock, and Verona had allocated close to $675,000, roughly a third of its $2.1 million budget, toward policing that year.
The borough's mutual-aid agreements with Penn Hills and Oakmont only kick in once a Verona officer is already on the scene, meaning those outside departments cannot be the first responders to a call. That gap was on display in an earlier case, when state police had to respond to a Verona assault from their Coraopolis station, nearly 30 miles away, because no local backup was available. The same prior reporting noted that two violent crimes, an assault near Cribbs Field and an armed robbery on the 700 block of Maple Street, had already left residents on edge, happening within hours of one another while then-Chief Ron McLemore was recovering from an assault he sustained during a domestic-violence call and Sgt. Jerry Frankos served as officer in charge.
None of that earlier context confirms whether Saturday's Halloween-night attack is connected to those staffing issues or prior incidents, and police have not said so. What is clear is that the department is once again leaning on the public to help close a case in a town where officers are stretched thin. Anyone with information, photos or video from the 700 block of 2nd Street is asked to contact the Verona Police Department at 412-828-6034.
