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Police release further details on raid on Pittsburgh homeless camp
News Update

Police release further details on raid on Pittsburgh homeless camp

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pittsburgh police raided a homeless encampment on Wednesday, but officers said their targets were people who were preying on the homeless.

KDKA-TV was there Wednesday night when two dozen Pittsburgh Bureau of Police officers raided a homeless encampment on Grant Street and arrested suspected drug dealers.

Acting on search warrants and the results of a months-long investigation, drug and violence prevention officers entered the downtown encampment, handcuffing and detaining several people while searching the tents, reportedly seizing large quantities of suspected crack cocaine.

“After the police activities and investigation, they realized that people were coming into this camp, as we have seen at others. They were targeting the vulnerable population and using them as a front or cover for illegal activities, including drug trafficking,” said Lee Schmidt, Pittsburgh Public Safety Director.

Officers arrested five people, including two who they said did not live there but were storing and selling drugs in two tents.

Deidra Lomax of Washington County is charged with possession of 50 packets of crack cocaine with intent to resell. The indictment states that Davidt Brown of Turtle Creek possessed 39 packets of crack and powder cocaine, which he sold to homeless people there.

Lomax was released on bail, but Brown remains in the Allegheny County Jail because he is unable to make the $1 bail.

“We never want to persecute people from our vulnerable population,” Schmidt said. “We want the perpetrators and their predatory actions to be stopped.”

According to criminal complaints, police began their investigation by responding to complaints from business owners who observed outdoor drug dealing, violence, and public urination and defecation at the location.

Schmidt said the site will not be shut down but will be examined by a city and county committee that will evaluate the camps and consider whether they should be demolished.

About half of the camp was demolished during the raid. Many residents left the camp, others returned on Thursday while the city and county reviewed whether to demolish the rest.

Pittsburgh

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