MCKEES ROCKS, Pa. — It was a year of rising violence in McKees Rocks and Stowe Township. These small neighboring towns have a combined population of about 12,000 people. That’s just 1% of the population in Allegheny County, but they had 10% of the homicides, with a total of 11 in 2021.
According to recently released FBI statistics, McKees Rocks is the most dangerous city in Pennsylvania. It had more incidents of violent crime per capita than all other cities in the state. (Based on FBI data from 2018)
McKees Rocks resident Whitney Irby knows the pain of that violence all too well.
“I’m moving through the pain, you know what I’m saying. I’m in the auto drive,” the now-single mom of four told 11 investigates.
Her husband, 36-year-old Brian Irby, was one of the 11 homicide victims last year. He was gunned down in the street, right in front of their home on Fair Oaks Street, this past October.
Whitney Irby is trying to carry-on with life after losing her husband, but says it’s been tough.
“I didn’t want to move out of bed. The kids were like, ‘Mom, we have to eat,’” explaining how her children helped to bring her out of her darkest days.
She’s working hard to get back on track and keep her kids away from the violence swirling around them.
“Keeping them busy and maintaining a nice safe bubble for them, so the outside world doesn’t affect them as much,” she said.
Unfortunately, that’s not always easy.
Irby’s two older kids are seniors at Sto-Rox High School. They get good grades and are busy with extracurricular activities like sports and band. She’s proud that they stay out of trouble, but gunfire is becoming increasingly common near their school.
Teens getting guns
“We’re not proud of that fact, naturally,” Stowe Township Police Chief Matt Preininger told 11 Investigates.
Preininger says the number of gun violence incidents and homicides last year was an eye-opener.
“It seems like the first answer is ‘jump for a firearm.’ A lot of these individuals getting a hold of these firearms are teenagers, 14, 15, 16-year-old kids,” he said.
The community is taking steps to try and curb the violence. Stowe has hired more full-time police officers, who make a point of being visible in the community at key times. At least one squad car is posted at the high school at dismissal every day, to help deter any simmering conflicts.
They’ve also installed a battery of public surveillance cameras around town as a tool to help solve crimes, which appears to be helping.
One camera posted on Broadway, the main street in town, recently captured a gunfight outside Aces Tavern.
“We caught the whole thing, and we turned it over to homicide, and they said this is hard to refute,” Chief Preininger said, referring to the solid evidence of a capturing the crime on camera.
Rentals & Blight
Stowe Township Commissioner Darrell Chestnutt grew up on the streets of this community and is heartbroken to see how prevalent violence has become here.
“Our biggest concern as commissioners is public safety, that should be number one,” he said. “I want kids and families to come and walk down Broadway and feel safe.”
He says one issue they believe contributes to the violence is having a more transient population. He estimates that about 30 to 35% of the community is made up of renters.
“I don’t want to blame it on renters or landlords, but there are a lot of people who come here, they’re here for a year or two and they’re gone,” he explained.
Chestnutt says that has led to a decrease in community commitment and increased blight.
“We have landlords that live in California, so they don’t have a connection to our town. They don’t know what’s going on here — the renters leave, they don’t tell them (landlords) they left, windows are open, the weather gets inside and next thing you know, the house collapsed.”
That’s exactly what happened to a home on Race Street this past summer. It was one of more than 100 abandoned homes throughout the community in recent years that were in danger of collapsing. Instead of waiting for the rest to fall, the township started seizing and demolishing abandoned homes.
“We took 10 or 11 houses just off this Ridge Avenue alone,” Chestnutt said, taking us on a tour of locations where homes were taken down.
One of the most prominent demolitions was right next to the historic tunnel in the center of town.
“It was dangerously close to collapsing onto Tunnel Way, and we decided it had to come down,” he said.
Working to make it safer
Cleaning up the blight is part of a strategy to help turn things around. They know they don’t have all the answers, but say they are trying.
“I know we’re going in a direction. I’m trying to make sure we don’t go too far down the path that we can’t come back,” said Preininger.
Facial recognition cameras are another tool Stowe Police might be adding to their arsenal in fighting crime and violence. They’re testing out the technology now and already have a couple posted around town.
With the success they’ve had already with the regular security cameras, they hope this could add a new dimension to track suspects, especially when it comes to drug-dealing hot spots.
They hope it sends a message to people to think twice before causing trouble.
“If you come here and you commit a crime, we’re going to catch you. We’re not going to tolerate it,” Chestnutt said.