A steel worker shot in an ambush during the Race Riots in Pittsburgh in 60's - Another Cold Case of history lost and a Gunmen goes unpunished

I was a young child of 8  years old when the riots broke out in Pittsburgh in the 1960's after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and it was a scary time when the riots broke out I was attending St. Basil's Grade School in Carrick  29th ward section of city of Pittsburgh. they came over the intercom speaker and advised us all  to get ready to go home there was an emergency and go straight home do not stop any where .
It was when I got home and mom had the TV on that I saw the news had broken in and was showing the rioting going on in the Hill District .
My Mom was worried my dad was at the mill  and he called to say he was staying over a shift till it was safer to come home .
It was a couple days later when they came over the TV news that a J&L steelworker on his way home from evening shift when he was shot by an unknown assailant.

Brady street bridge where sniper layed in wait


Luckily it was not my dad he was home but it was one of the guys he knew  who while driving home went up Brady street from 2nd ave and was shot  at the intersection of Brady and 5th ave.  he miraculously survived the shooting  







The whole area where this happened has completely changed  to ride thru there today you would never know what happened in that intersection or even have any idea there was a different bridge . The Brady Street Bridge was replaced by the modern Birmingham Bridge and has its own tragic story of when it was just shortly opened and old bridge  demolished a worker would loose his leg . J&L Steel which Became LTV Steel in 70's  is gone is well as is the  extremely steep  section of Brady Street which ran between 5th ave and Forbes Ave.  across from Brady.  No gunmen was ever found and its a forgotten piece of riot history  and how people in the neighborhood came to his rescue.

Needless to say even to this day when I ride thru that intersection on occasion I still get that twinge of dread at what happened and constant worry as a kid during those times when we would take my dad to work. 

Ironically while working in the south side across the river  from where the riot took place in the Soho section while working on some flat roofs of buildings my self and others have found bullets laying on the roofs of buildings  which may have been from that time the ones I found I turned into the police  for ballistics investigation and hopefully will help solve any open cases from then.

No comments:

Post a Comment