A 41-year old man was found dead in a home, and a pit bull was the initial suspect.1
Few Details Released
McKeesport, PA - On Friday afternoon, just after 4:30 pm, Allegheny County Police were dispatched to the 2900 block of Grover Street, for an "individual possibly injured by a dog. Unknown the severity of injuries," according to audio dispatch logs from Allegheny County Public Safety. Allegheny County Homicide is investigating the death of a man believed to be the result of a dog attack, McKeesport Police Captain Christopher Halaszynski told KDKA Friday night.
Multiple neighbors told KDKA that they heard about four gunshots and believe the dog had been shot once they came out and saw this. "There was blood and vomit on the street. There were four shell casings on the street," one neighbor told KDKA. The dog involved was a brindle-colored pit bull, who neighbors believed to be about 4-years old. McKeesport police said the dog was alive and was taken into custody by animal control officials. It's unclear if the dog had been shot.
The man was identified as Stephen Rucinski, 41, by the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office. By Saturday, Halaszynski said that police no longer believe that the dog was involved. He requested that Allegheny County Homicide detectives "sort out what happened," WPXI reported. That department is now overseeing the investigation. At 6:50 pm Friday, Allegheny County Fire was asked to do a "spray down" on Grover Street, according to audio dispatch log files.
Rucinski was found wounded and dead inside by a family member, according to emergency personnel, reports Tube City Almanac. The extent of Rucinski’s injuries was not publicly released and it was not clear who owned the dog. The pit bull bolted from the home too. McKeesport police and animal control officers had to search the neighborhood for an hour after the "incident" to locate the animal. The investigation is continuing, but further information will not be released.
Pennsylvania Undercount
Back in 2017, we commented on three fatal or near fatal pit bull maulings in Philadelphia, none of which are included in our dog bite fatality statistics due to lack of confirmation by Philadelphia police, an agency that has never responded to our FOIA requests. Now, another victim may be added in the Pittsburg area. We know from CDC Wonder database that we have undercounted dog bite fatalities in Pennsylvania with the most obvious areas being Philadelphia and Pittsburg.
Since 2005, we have recorded three fatal dog maulings in Philadelphia (population 1.6 million), but none in Pittsburg (population 302,000), the second largest city in Pennsylvania. Suburbs of Pittsburg, however, have reported fatal dog maulings during the period, including one fatal attack in McKeesport (population 19,000) in 2012 and another in West Mifflin (population 20,000) in 2015. It is unknown if we will learn anything else about the death of Stephen Rucinski.
Related articles:
11/24/17: Man Dies in North Philadelphia After Being Attacked by Four Pit Bulls on Thanksgiving
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.
It is the greatest desire of all local legal authorities, and all local real estate associations, and all local business associations to cover up any and all dog attacks, whether they be moderate injury, severe injury, traumatic injury, or fatal injury dog attacks. Local authorities will state that any and all dog attacks must be further investigated before the obvious truth can be simply uttered, if ever at all. When a dog attack is promptly and fully reported, that is the exception, not the norm. In this incident, the powers that be are primarily strongly motivated to hush it up; and if that is not possible, to willfully fabricate blame on anything other than the obvious attacker, which in this case, is a dangerous breed canine. Next step that these authorities will take is to state that further investigation is needed, and then not utter one more word ever again. All local and national attack dog bite injury statistics are willfully extremely under-reported.
The neighbors and immediate witnesses know what happened, but the authorities hate to simply state the obvious truth. They will obfuscate, distort, falsify, omit, and abandon the truth.
Possibly the deceased initially succumbed to a cause other than a dog mauling, {such as a drug overdose} and then the hungry dog started to chomp on the victim. Officers show up and see the “resource protective” pit bull, shoot it, and then later piece together the chain of events.
The no-kill nuts will be all over the cops on this. {as if they wouldn’t, regardless!}
This is still just speculation and may not be exactly what took place. But ..What a mess.
Dogs don’t attack people because they’re hungry. Too much work. They’re scavengers–normal dogs would rip apart all the trash on the street, first.
The gruesome exception is they are locked in with a dead body and no food, then they might because it’s the only food source.
Here is the pitbull problem in a nutshell.
“My neighbour has lions in his yard, so what? I like lions. Nice lion kitties. Save the Lions/Not my problem.”
After they’re dead it’s too late to complain about the lions.
With Philly, you can never really rule out sheer incompetence. The city that earned the slapdown “Corrupt and contented” many years ago has never changed.
PA has a statewide dangerous dog registry. Philadelphia, a dogfighting hub, has noticeably few entries on this list. My count is a whopping 29 dogs registered.
https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Animals/DogLaw/Dangerous%20Dogs/Documents/Dangerous%20Dog%2010.14.21.pdf
Pittsburgh native here. Philadelphia is about 300 miles to the east of Pittsburgh.
I have to admit that I think that’s a great idea:.
“Dangerous Dog Registry”
Along with the knowledge of the owner that the dog is taken from them on the first biting incident.
That, and impound all non licensed dogs.
The streets might be a little safer for us ALL to walk down after that I would think.
This is a fun document. Using the find function, here are the results of some of my searches:
pit – 436
pitts -78 (as in Pittsburgh, subtract from possible pits)
pit bull – 299
pitbull (one word) -39
bull – 374
mix -287
terr – 300
staff – 15
Amer 292 (as in American Staff/pit)
corso – 12
shep – 63
Rott – 26
Labra – 14