Gutter: Woof, woof, avenge me

So, in Mount Oliver on Tuesday evening, police officers exchanged shots with a 19-year-old, resulting in the deaths of the young man as well as a police dog. By most accounts, such as those in the P-G and the Trib, the story went like this:

Police officers were responding to reports of shots fired on Arlington Avenue when they see 19-year-old Justin Jackson standing on the street. The cops, with K-9 in tow, approach Jackson and ask him to take his hands out of his pockets. When he does, he’s holding a gun. The cops release the dog to disarm (or at least incapacitate) Jackson; he responds by shooting the dog. The cops respond by shooting Jackson.

End of story.

So what do we make of this? On my first (and second, and third) readings of this story, I think I was able to put together a rather sound concept of what happened: the kid fired his gun in the direction of the dog, which also happened to be in the direction of the cops, and the cops responded in kind. Sounds relatively cut and dry.

But Jackson’s family sees it a different way. And in their grief, they have formed several well-conceived theories on what happened Tuesday night:


Theory #1:

The cops shot the kid to avenge the death of the dog.

“The officer told me, 'Our dog got shot so we shot him.' They killed my son over a dog,” Jackson’s father said in the Trib.

“"I'm speechless that this happened. I just don't know what to say. They shot him because of a dog.,” Jackson’s aunt said in a separate Trib article.

"They will pay for killing my son. They are going to pay for shooting my son over a dog!” Jackson’s mother said in the Trib.

Okay, folks, all together now: in all likelihood, Justin Jackson was not shot because he killed Aulf, the Pittsburgh K-9 unit’s six-year-old German shepherd. When Justin Jackson shot at the dog, he was shooting in the direction of the police.

Now here comes the really complicated part, so pay close attention:

When police get shot at, they shoot back. Not to avenge a dog, but to protect their own lives.

If you had a gun and someone was shooting at you (or in your direction), I’m guessing you’d probably return fire.


Theory #2:

Jackson didn’t have a gun.

This theory has emerged in today’s reports in both papers (to wit: ”Family challenges police account of killing” in the P-G and ”Police say Knoxville man shot first” in the Trib).

In the Trib: “…family members said Justin Jackson was not known to carry [a gun].”

Naturally, Jackson does have firearms violations on his criminal record, which is normal for someone who is not known to carry a gun.

Of course, the police do feel pretty confident that Jackson was carrying a gun.

From the P-G: “Eyewitnesses, evidence at the scene and trace evidence from the crime lab will prove beyond doubt that he had the gun,” said Lt. Daniel Herrmann of Major Crimes.

Jackson’s father has his own eyewitnesses.

From the P-G: Many family members do not believe he had a gun and theorized that police shot both the K-9 and Mr. Jackson.

Donald James Jackson, his father, said he has witnesses to back up this theory, but he did not want to provide their names yesterday.

He said witnesses told him that they saw one of the officers hover over his son's body and he suspects the officers planted a gun and other evidence there.

About those witnesses, check out some of the quotes from bystanders in the first report in the Trib:

”"He shot the dog, and they shot him," said Glass, 15.

That’s good insight from a 15-year-old.

Also from the Trib:

"I think people should be able to go to the bus stop without being shot," said Stephanie Bibey, 15, echoing a statement made by several bystanders.

Just to be clear: 15-year-olds don’t echo statements; they mimic them.

Undoubtedly, these are the kinds of witnesses Mr. Jackson is relying on to prove that his son did not have a gun.

Never mind that the bullets taken from Aulf were consistent with a .357 magnum, exactly the type of gun found at the scene and believed to have been the one Jackson pulled.

I guess all I’m getting at here is that, sometimes, not all the time but sometimes, a police shooting is not a racially-motivated event created by power-hungry pigs who are overcome with their sense of authority. Sometimes police use their weapons because they are under fire. Justin Jackson didn’t need to die Tuesday night, but when he fired in the direction of the police, I’m not sure what other outcome he could have expected.

The lesson: don’t shoot at cops.

It’s pretty simple.

Peak: A new rock-throwing suspect

Due to certain professional and social obligations, I’ve been off the clock a bit on all the latest news on local rock-throwing. But I’m back at it now, and not a moment too soon.

Let’s review:

Thursday, March 22 - State police arrest Jeffrey Angelo Ramous, the alleged Parkway West Rock Thrower. Ramous admitted to two years of throwing bricks and large stones. State police say that they know Ramous’ motives, but they are not disclosing that information. Intrigue grows.

Friday, March 23 - The state police promote Lt. Sheldon Epstein to the rank of captain. Epstein was a member of the crack team of investigators that took down Ramous.

Saturday, March 24 – A copycat emerges, as more rocks are thrown on the Parkway West. Details are sketchy but terrifying.

Sunday, March 25 - More details emerge about the copycat.

Monday, March 26 - State police announce plans to increase their surveillance of the Parkway West.

Wednesday, March 28 - Panic and paranoia spread, as a wayward wrench socket drops off an overpass on the Parkway East. Undue connections are drawn. Facts later catch up to hype.

Thursday, March 29 - A preliminary hearing is held for Ramous, where state police testify that he told them that he threw rocks after drinking and smoking weed.

Thursday, April 5 - New rock-throwing occurs when two vehicles were hit within moments of each other. Despite the chronological proximity, the two attacks are geographically separated, with one happening on the Parkway West near Campbell’s Run Road and the other taking place in Robinson. I missed this one due to the aforementioned (but not specified) professional and social obligations.

Okay then. We’re up to date. Let’s move forward.

This case originally intrigued me because of its rather bizarre nature (which has been outlined in my previous blog posts on the subject), and the latest developments have followed suit. As reported in a number of news outlets, including the Trib and the Post-Gazette, state police collared another suspected rock-thrower yesterday.

This new rock-thrower has not been identified by the police, although word has gotten out that he is a 19-year-old white male from Westmoreland County. Where things get interesting is in the details of his detainment.

Apparently, this 19-year-old was driving outbound on the Parkway West late Monday night when he lost control of his car and crashed between the Green Tree and Carnegie exits. Sounds normal enough: even I have been in a car crash between the Green Tree and Carnegie exits going outbound on the Parkway West. But when police were called to the scene, they made a rather startling discovery. From the Trib:

Rocks found in his car "are consistent with rocks found along the Parkway West," Trooper Robin Mungo, a state police spokeswoman, said in a statement.

The Trib article goes on to state that police “took [the 19-year-old] into custody after they became suspicious of things he said and the rocks in his car.”

All the news outlets claim that the 19-year-old admitted to police that he had thrown rocks at cars. While the state police did not arrest the 19-year-old, his statements were bizarre enough that they did take further action. Again, from the Trib:

Authorities involuntarily committed the man yesterday morning to an undisclosed hospital for evaluation…

The Trib also tells us that the 19-year-old’s evaluation is psychiatric in nature. What interests me about this course of action is that Ramous also admitted to throwing rocks when he was initially arrested (although he now claims innocence), but the state police did not see a need to have him committed. Perhaps they are building a case against the 19-year-old and they fear that he is a flight risk, so they have concocted this psychiatric evaluation as a means to detain him without due cause. I would assume that the rocks found in his car are being tested for ballistics or some marking that would tie them to the point of rock-throwing attack.

It’s interesting that while “Police have been using thermo-imaging cameras to catch the people who they think are responsible” (WTAE), in the end all it took was finding some rocks in some guy’s car.

I’m not sure what just yet, but something seems very odd about this latest development in the rock-throwing case.

Gutter: A new theatre of conflict?

I missed the news last night, so this story passed me by until this morning when I saw it online. Yesterday around 2:30 PM, a car on the Parkway East was hit by a wrench socket. The socket went through the windshield of the van, which was driven by Kenneth Gantt of Jeannette.

This story is available at the websites of the Post-Gazette, the Trib, and the TV stations: KDKA, WTAE, and WPXI.

The obvious first question: is this incident related to The Parkway West Rock Thrower and the subsequent copycat rock throwers? That’s certainly the first impulse that I had, and it’s not surprising that all of the news reports reference Jeffrey Angelo Ramous, aka The Parkway West Rock Thrower, who was arrested last Thursday and was scheduled for a preliminary hearing today.

With the mention of Ramous and the subsequent rock-throwers, the news outlets are making all the connections for us. For example, I just watched Keith Jones on the KDKA noon broadcast call the Parkway East incident “similar” to the Parkway West incidents.

I have to say, I’m not so sure about that.

Here’s what I’m thinking: for starters, yesterday’s incident happened at 2:30 PM, while Ramous’ attacks and the subsequent rock-throwing all took place at night, specifically between 8 PM and 3 AM. Also, as has been reported a number of times, Ramous and the subsequent rock-throwers all used bricks or large stones. And there’s also the little matter of geography: yesterday’s incident took place on the overpass near the Greensburg Pike exit off the Parkway East, while Ramous and the subsequent rock-throwers did their dastardly deeds on the Parkway West, reportedly from the Norfolk Southern Railroad trestle.

It just doesn’t seem to add up.

In fact, I can easily see how this could have happened by accident. It’s not hard to imagine a wrench socket falling out of a truck that is driving on the overpass. A few unfortunate bounces later and it’s flying through Gantt’s windshield. I think that’s a perfectly acceptable explanation for what happened, and I think that some of the news outlets agree, since the Post-Gazette, the Trib, and WPXI all stick to basic facts (a wrench socket struck a windshield, no one was hurt, police are investigating) without explicitly drawing any conclusions.

Not so for KDKA. I already mentioned that Keith Jones opened the segment on the incident by taking about Ramous and the Parkway West before proceeding to call yesterday’s accident “similar,” which is a leap of logic, since there are a fair amount of dissimilarities. In addition to that, if you read the write-up on the KDKA website and watch the video report, you’ll see that Channel 2 has already determined the nature of the accident.

For starters, Jones (here anchoring KDKA’s CW-based morning broadcast) flat-out says that “a piece of metal was thrown at a car on the Parkway East.” (Never mind that he says it happened “last week;” I’ll chalk that up to misspeaking). Bob Allen is the reporter for the story, and he repeats the assumption.

Transcribed (by me):

Kenneth Gantt of Jeannette was driving relatives to the airport when someone tossed a metal tool object through the windshield of his van.

Allen then draws a direct connection to the Parkway West incidents.

Transcribed (again, by me):

This is the latest incident since the weekend when someone threw rocks from an overpass through the windshields of two vehicles on the Parkway West between the Green Tree and Carnegie exits.

Allen goes on to claim that state police believe that the “latest incidents are the work of copycats.” Maybe the state police believe that the incidents over the weekend are the work of copycats, but I’m inclined to think that the police haven’t made that assumption about the Parkway East accident just quite yet.

In fact, Channel 4’s report, which actually appears to be the best report available, says that state police have NOT drawn the connection.

Police don’t know if the object was purposefully dropped or if it bounced out of a vehicle.

Why believe Channel 4 over Channel 2? Well, Channel 4 also got the police to identify the object as a socket “from a 5/8 inch Craftsman ratchet wrench,” while Channel 2 had to operate on the speculation of Gantt, the driver of the van:

Gantt believes the culprit threw a socket from a wrench.

So we get two pieces of information from that statement:

1. The item was a wrench socket.
2. Someone threw it.

And I’ll add a third piece of info from my own deduction:

3. Kenneth Gantt is now a police investigator.

”I don’t know what their sick mind is doing. They could obviously kill somebody like that,” [Gantt] said.

I’m not saying that this wasn’t a criminal incident, and I’m not saying that this wasn’t another rock-throwing copycat. If this turns out to be a purposeful attack, I will lead the charge in bringing the criminal to justice. I’m just saying that we need to be careful about spreading fear and creating panic if, in fact, it was just an accident.

The worst thing we can do is allow the rock-throwers to make us fear the worst every time we see an overpass. If that is their goal, then sensational stories with under-investigated reports serve the rock-throwers, not us, the law-abiding travelers.

Peak: State police look to amp up Parkway West surveillance

I guess since nobody threw any rocks last night or Sunday night, the mysterious case of The Parkway West Rock Thrower and The Copycat Rock Thrower isn’t much of a news story anymore. None of the TV stations’ websites have anything new or updated, save for a few recycled quotes repackaged as a fresh report. And the Post-Gazette didn’t see fit to devote any space in today’s paper to one of the most heinous travel-related serial crimes in recent Western Pennsylvania history.

The Trib provides the most extensive report. Most of it is repeat information (like the TV sites) but in the end the gist is this:

State police are increasing their surveillance of the crime scenes along the Parkway West.

Not surprisingly, the cops aren’t talking about what exactly the extra patrols will include, but they did give us some idea of the tactics that will be employed.

The plan could involve helicopter surveillance and positioning troopers in the woods near the area where someone late Saturday and early Sunday heaved softball-sized rocks at vehicles traveling between the Green Tree and Carnegie exits, police said.

State police said they don't want to give away details that could help the culprits. The latest attacks came just days after police arrested a suspect in similar incidents.

We already know that the investigation which led to the arrest of The Parkway West Rock Thrower was “aggressive” and included night vision cameras as well as troopers hiding in the woods. The result of those tactics resulted in Jeffrey Angelo Ramous, aka The Parkway West Rock Thrower, being arrested last Thursday. Now that The Copycat Rock Thrower has emerged, we can only assume that the state police, presumably under the direction of super-cop Captain Sheldon Epstein, will pursue equally aggressive surveillance methods.

Of course, this investigation could get a bit more complicated, as a driver who was struck by a rock on Saturday night has hypothesized that the projectile came from am moving vehicle rather than the Norfolk Southern Railroad trestle that overlooks 279-South between the Green Tree and Carnegie exits, which was the preferred launch pad of The Parkway West Rock Thrower. This may require Pennsylvania’s Finest to really ramp up the efforts, although they aren’t completely abandoning the “stationary rock thrower” theory.

Authorities used at least one police dog to search the woods near the parkway during the weekend but have no leads or suspects, Carnegie police Chief Jeff Harbin said.

While on-the-ground surveillance is a very steady approach to capturing The Copycat Rock Thrower, I fear that more attack may occur before this criminal is brought to justice. As such, the state police may need to employ more “unconventional” tactics. I’ve got an idea on what they might be able to try, but I’m still formulating it.

Gutter: More rocks thrown, more intrigue sown

When I first posted yesterday about The Copycat Rock Thrower, the details were sketchy but terrifying: three days after the arrest of Jeffrey Angelo Ramous, aka The Parkway West Rock Thrower, someone took up Ramous’ cause, throwing rocks at cars traveling on the Parkway West Saturday night. I based yesterday’s post on the report that appeared on the Channel 2 website in the morning, but most of the details were similar to other reports.

Since yesterday morning, though, more details have emerged about The Copycat Rock Thrower, and Saturday night’s crime has grown more worrisome with each new piece of evidence.

But with the emergence of new details, some of the old information regarding the case has become, well, false. For instance, the initial reports on The Copycat Rock Thrower indicated that two vehicles were hit Saturday night, and the story became even more exceptional when it was reported that both vehicles were hit by one rock. I took the liberty of equating this scenario with the “JFK-magic bullet” theory, but it turns out that those details weren’t exactly accurate.

Now, with the wisdom of time, various news outlets have provided us with a far clearer picture of what happened Saturday night.

A quick overview of what has happened: around 8:30 PM Saturday night, two cars were hit with rocks near the Green Tree exit on the Parkway West. The first rock hit a taxi cab, but the driver was not injured. The second rock hit a Toyota Camry; the driver of that car had cuts on his face, but his passenger was unharmed. Later that night, reportedly around 2 AM, a third car was hit. Minor injuries were reported in the third incident.

You can find the sources for this summary at the following links: Channel 2, Channel 4, Channel 11, the Post-Gazette, and the Trib.

A note on these sources: each news outlet reported on this story, but they all have varying degrees of newsworthiness. For instance, Channel 2 leads the TV pack, as The Copycat Rock Thrower headlines the station’s website, and they feature two video reports along with a write-up. The write-up appears to contain all of the facts, save for the name of the driver of the Camry. This is interesting because the Channel 2 report from Sunday morning clearly states that David and Margaret Cosnek of Coraopolis were in the Camry when it was hit (this is the only source I can find online that names those two).

The other TV stations mailed it in on the websites, as Channel 4’s worthless drivel doesn’t provide much beyond very basic information, and Channel 11 still doesn’t even list the third incident from Saturday night.

On the print side, the Post-Gazette basically follows the Channel 2 report. But the real leader in today’s reporting on The Copycat Rock Thrower is the Trib. I didn’t like the Trib on Sunday because their site was running slow; well, they’ve made up for it today by providing the most informative and thought-provoking report available on The Copycat Rock Thrower.

In addition to the basic facts, Carl Prine starts his report by throwing this wrench into the gears of the rock-throwing legend:

The latest series of rock attacks against Parkway West motorists could have come from passing vehicles or from an overpass, state police said Sunday.

Passing vehicles? This is totally new speculation, as Ramous (The Parkway West Rock Thrower, in case you forgot) was a stationary rock-thrower, usually throwing from the Norfolk Southern Railroad trestle. The possibility of a rock being thrown from a passing vehicle is a major development that could drastically alter the police investigation. Some of this speculation comes from Cosnek, the driver of the Camry (who is not identified).

[Cosnek] said the rock might have been pitched from another automobile, not from the Norfolk Southern railroad trestle or a nearby highway bridge.

If that is the case, this would be a major development in the ongoing case of rocks being thrown at cars on the Parkway West. In the original investigation, state police nabbed Ramous through extensive surveillance, using night vision cameras and troopers hiding in the woods. But if these rocks are being thrown from passing vehicles, such antiquated means of police work would be ineffective.

In fact, this case could test even the mettle of super-cop Captain Sheldon Epstein. Luckily, the Green Tree police know that they can’t take this one down alone.

"We don't have any leads right now," said Green Tree Police Department officer Bob Monaco. "The Pennsylvania State Police are the primary investigators and this is an ongoing investigation."

While Monaco and the rest of the Green Tree fuzz are deferring to Pennsylvania’s Finest, one of the local officers apparently floated this theory to the Trib.

Authorities don't know if the latest are being carried out by a person who might have teamed with Ramous during his alleged rock-throwing spree or by a copycat.

And this little tidbit adds a bit more intrigue. See, I had been referring to this case as The Copycat Rock Thrower, which I will continue to do. But if this newest rock thrower is in fact a cohort of The Parkway West Rock Thrower, then we are facing a conspiracy, perhaps even a group of anarchists (such as the type suggested in this comment) who are hell-bent on taking out the travelers who choose the Parkway West.

This would play in with the ominous statement of Ralph Iannotti who, in his initial report on the arrest of The Parkway West Rock Thrower, said that state police “know the motive for Ramous’ actions, but they are not disclosing it at this time.” Perhaps state police found evidence that Ramous was part of an activist group, American extremists who are seeking to inflict damage on the Parkway West and its traveling inhabitants.

There are so many questions. At first, I was simply perplexed by the motives of The Parkway West Rock Thrower. Now, as the case has grown and become more mysterious, I have begun to wonder just how large the scope is. I can only hope that more details emerge and, more importantly, the authorities are able to curb these dastardly acts.

Gutter: A copycat!

Just when we thought it was over, our worst fears have been realized.

Three days after the capture of Jeffrey Angelo Ramous, aka The Parkway West Rock Thrower, a copycat has taken up Ramous’ cause: on Saturday night, someone threw a rock from an overpass near the Greentree exit.

You can take your pick of source info on this one: Channel 11, Channel 2, Channel 4, or the Post-Gazette. I assume that the Trib has it too, but their website was slow this morning and getting on my nerves, so never mind them.

As with the original story of the apprehension of The Parkway West Rock Thrower, I defer to Channel 2 on this latest incidence of rock-throwing. Paul Martino has all the info for us, and he’s a worthy substitute for Ralph Iannotti.

But this story isn’t about the reporters. It’s about The Copycat Rock Thrower.

It appears that late Saturday night, someone threw a rock; those circumstances are very similar to The Parkway West Rock Thrower. However, this new culprit seems to be a fair bit craftier, as this rock not only struck a taxi driven by Mary Pucci, of Carnegie, but then went on to hit a Toyota Camry driven by David Cosnek, of Coroapolis. It’s almost reminiscent of the “JFK-magic bullet” theory, except in this case it’s not a bullet, it's a rock, and instead of killing a president, it damaged a Camry.

Ramous was never able to accomplish a double-hit like this, and the magic rock has got local police, like Lt. Chad Rannigan of the Greentree squad, perplexed.

“This is, to my knowledge, the first time we’ve had multiple vehicles basically at the same incident,” Rannigan said. “Normally, it was just one vehicle.”

Nice try Lt. Rannigan, but this case may be a bit over your head. Hopefully the resources of super-cop Captain Sheldon Epstein will be available in catching The Copycat Rock Thrower. Epstein, as you may recall, is the state policeman who had a hand in nabbing The Parkway West Rock Thrower. Ramous was arrested on Thursday and Epstein was promoted from lieutenant to captain on Friday, leading some (me) to conclude that his work in the case of The Parkway West Rock Thrower was a career-maker for him.

Clearly, the Greentree police are going to need all the help they can get on this one.

“It’s very possible, maybe it’s a copycat,” said Rannigan, the small-town cop. “It might just be a coincidence, somebody else throwing rocks.”

It should be noted that one of The Parkway West Rock Thrower’s original victims, Jim Christy of Oakmont, feared that such a copycat would surface. In Ralph Iannotti’s original report on the arrest of The Parkway West Rock Thrower, Christy, whose car was hit by a rock last November, worried that someone else would “get the wrong idea.” Well, Jim, it looks like someone else did get the wrong idea: the wrong idea that it’s okay to throw rocks at cars on the Parkway.

Anyway, it looks like the Parkway is once again a crime scene. According to Channel 2’s Martino, police “conducted an active search on Saturday night,” but with no success. Let’s hope that The Copycat Rock Thrower is brought to justice soon and the Parkway is returned to its normal level of safety.

Peak: The continuing saga of The Parkway West Rock Thrower

Yesterday I posted about state police arresting The Parkway West Rock Thrower and the mysterious circumstances surrounding this particularly vile villain. If you haven't been following this ongoing tale of criminal intrigue, I suggest you peruse my post on the topic.

Well, while it is notable that state police took down this terrible thrower, this hurler of horror, this proverbial large stone of fear that flies in the night, it now appears that the apprehension of The Parkway West Rock Thrower is even bigger than I once thought.

Like I said yesterday, Channel 2’s Ralph Iannotti informed us that the arrest of The Parkway West Rock Thrower on Thursday was the result of "an aggressive investigation”. As it turns out, not only was this investigation aggressive, it was also career-making, since the state police have now promoted a lieutenant involved in the investigation.

That’s right: according to the Trib, “Lt. Sheldon Epstein was promoted to captain and assigned as director of the Safety Program Division in Harrisburg.” Epstein (he's the officer pictured above) had previously served as station commander at the Moon Township base and he has served with the state police since 1981. That’s a long time to spend with the state police, so I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to call The Parkway West Rock Thrower the culmination of his career. This was the big one, the case Epstein waited 26 years for.

Apparently it was a bit of a red ball, too. That’s the only way I can explain 1) the devotion of man hours to the investigation, which included night vision cameras and troopers hiding in the woods, and 2) the promotion of Epstein, which came one day after the arrest of The Parkway West Rock Thrower. (If you’re unsure about what a "red ball" is, it’s a term that originated on the TV show Homicide: Life on the Street, and it denotes a case of high priority that commands the attention of an entire police force. A red ball demands a certain amount of urgency, and the high-end of red balls demand the utmost urgency. Therefore, I would think that closing a high-priority red ball case could lead to promotion; hence Epstein’s new rank of captain.)

However, I want to make it clear that the promotion of Lt. Sheldon Epstein to captain is no accident. As reported in the Trib’s article, Epstein, a 1977 graduate of Carnegie Mellon, heightened his investigative prowess by attending the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va. He graduated from Quantico in 2001, and in the past year he put his expertise to work in the case of The Parkway West Rock Thrower.

We should all be thankful that Pennsylvania's Finest employ someone with Epstein's qualifications, so that when the good people of the Commonwealth are threatened by a dastardly villain like The Parkway West Rock Thrower, Captain Epstein and his men can be counted on to crack the case.

Peak: State police unmask The Parkway West Rock Thrower

One of the most horrifying travel dangers in recent Pennsylvania history came to an end this week when the state police arrested The Parkway West Rock Thrower. This story is available on most of the local news websites, such as Channel 11, the Post-Gazette, and the Trib, but my main source is the report on Channel 2. I couldn’t find anything on Channel 4, but they do have this handy Parkway ActionCam. I think that’s the Parkway West, so that can give you an image of the highway in question, or, as some might say it, “the scene of the crime.”

Anyway, the summary of the story is that this guy was standing on an overpass throwing rocks and bricks at cars traveling in both directions on the Parkway West, mostly between the Roslyn Farms and Greentree exits. This had been going on since 2005, so as you can imagine, drivers were quite concerned about traveling on 279-South (yes, that’s the same road as the Parkway West; I know, south and west seem to be different directions, but hey, it’s Pittsburgh. We understand it).

But now those drivers can rest easy, because Jeffrey Angelo Ramous, aka The Parkway West Rock Thrower, has been apprehended. And it took the full resources of Pennsylvania’s Finest to capture this dastardly hurler. According to Ralph Iannotti’s report on Channel 2, the state police’s “aggressive investigation” included “surveillance and night vision cameras and troopers hiding in the woods near the Parkway.” Very covert actions were taken to reign in The Parkway West Rock Thrower.

I have to digress here for a moment and tell you that I am a fan of Ralph Iannotti. Iannotti has the disposition of a middle-to-late-aged man who has been laid off from his office job of 35 years and, as a result, has had to take a job at Staples, where he finds it difficult to mask his brash indifference to the fact that you aren’t sure what type of ink cartridge your printer takes.

If you look at Iannotti’s profile on the Channel 2 website, you’ll see that his favorite TV program is “Lou Grant.” In case you’re unsure, “Lou Grant” was an Ed Asner vehicle that spun off from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” three years after that show ended. “Lou Grant” ran from 1977-1982, and this is notable because Ralph Iannotti started working as a reporter for Channel 2 in 1982. Clearly, his origins as an investigative reporter are tied to the goal of uncovering the real reason “Lou Grant” went off the air.

Anyway, the profile on the Channel 2 web page says that Iannotti is “well known for his gritty no-nonsense style and his track record of being the first to break major stories.”

Well, the case of The Parkway West Rock Thrower certainly falls into those two categories, as Iannotti turns in some fine work in his reporting.

After laying out the facts, like the real identity of The Parkway West Rock Thrower (Jeffrey Angelo Ramous) and the fact that Ramous has admitted to throwing 100 bricks and large stones, Iannotti brings us up close and personal with a real life victim of The Parkway West Rock Thrower’s dastardly actions: Jim Christy of Oakmont.

Jim Christy is your average guy, a regular joe who’s just looking to visit his son and “people down there” but hasn’t been able to take the Parkway because of The Parkway West Rock Thrower. Christy got hit by The Parkway West Thrower last November when he and his wife were driving on the Parkway and an object went through his front windshield, flew through the car, and exited through the rear window. Christy wasn’t hurt in the accident, nor was his wife, but as Iannotti ominously puts it, “he always suspected foul play.”

Yes. The foul play of The Parkway West Rock Thrower.

Now that Ramous is in handcuffs, Christy can once again drive on the Parkway West when he visits his son and “people down there.”

Iannotti then gives us the perspective of one of The Parkway West Rock Thrower’s neighbors. The neighbor isn’t identified in the video, but in Iannotti’s write-up, he outs the man as Mark Franc of Scott Township. Franc calls The Parkway West Rock Thrower, who he knew as “Jeff,” a “very good neighbor.”

So the image of The Parkway West Rock Thrower becomes one of growing intrigue. By day he was Jeffrey Angelo Ramous, dishwasher and cook at Rocky’s Bar on Route 50, a fine man who was always willing to lend a hand to his neighbors. But those neighbors, the generally trusting people of Scott Township, had no idea that, under the cloak of night, the man they knew as “Jeff” became The Parkway West Rock Thrower, terrorizer of travelers, hurler of horror, the proverbial large stone of fear that flies in the night.

But there’s even more intrigue in the case of The Parkway West Rock Thrower; consider the dark statement that Iannotti makes at the end of his report:

"State police tell us they know the motive for Ramous’ actions, but they are not disclosing it at this time."

Whoa. So this is more than a dangerous prank on the part of a bored 49-year old? Seriously? There’s a deep, dark, secret motive underlying the actions of The Parkway West Rock Thrower? Now, on top of the double-life that Ramous has led since 2005, it appears that he’s a man on a mission, a man on a quest to accomplish something or make a statement about something or...or...or...

I really have no idea. What could be the motive for The Parkway West Rock Thrower? Perhaps he has a vision of eradicating air pollution by decreasing the number of travelers on the Parkway West. Perhaps he is trying to encourage drivers to abandon the highway in favor of more scenic “back roads.”

Maybe it’s more personal. Perhaps Ramous is a scorned lover or a victim of unrequited love who discovered that his true love was unfaithful to him or that she (or he) loved another man, and perhaps somehow the Parkway West figured into his discovery of this betrayal. As such, perhaps Ramous created the mysterious persona of The Parkway West Rock Thrower to take vengeance against the highway that he equates with his pain.

Whatever it is, I want to know The Parkway West Rock Thrower’s motive. Is he an activist? Or is he really an emotionally scarred man who just wants someone to love him? The possibilities are endless.

I can only hope that Ralph Iannotti’s gritty no-nonsense style will keep this story alive long enough for us to find out the true motivation for The Parkway West Rock Thrower.