This is what Spot77 and I almost stumbled upon as we were leaving Pittsburgh.....had we been a few minutes earlier to the Monroeville toll booth we would have been in the middle of this shoot out:
Sheraden woman slain after gunman abducts her and infant daughter from church services
Suspect led police on long chase; baby unharmed
Monday, April 19, 2004
By Nate Guidry and Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Victorious Faith Evangelic Outreach Church choir director Andrea Umphrey was singing with the Sheraden congregation as she did every Sunday morning when a man walked in, grabbed her by the hair, smacked her with a gun and fired shots at men who tried to help her.
She left the church alive after being forced into a red minivan with her infant daughter by Alvin Starks, said church members. Starks had reportedly just been in the Allegheny County Jail for violating a court order to stay away from Umphrey, congregation members said.
Hours later and some 20 miles away, she was fatally shot inside the van near the Monroeville toll booths of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Though police set up roadblocks and tire-deflating devices and had dozens of police vehicles in pursuit of the van on a roundabout chase between Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, they were unable to stop the vehicle.
Starks, 30, was shot in the arm and hospitalized, although state police declined to discuss whether shots were fired by the police at the scene of the busy turnpike interchange. They also would not say who fired the bullet that struck Umphrey in the abdomen. She was pronounced dead at 4:10 p.m. at Mercy Hospital.
Her daughter, Aliya, was uninjured, but Umphrey's family and a congregation of 130 people who had gathered to praise God on a glorious morning were left devastated.
Church member Robert Owens was grazed by a bullet from Starks' gun inside the one-story orange brick church on Sherwood Avenue and Bergman Street, just moments after the suspect tried to shoot Owens' father. The gun misfired on Umphrey's first protector, but not the second.
"God spared my life and my father's life,'' said Owens, whose dark gray sweater had a tear over the right shoulder from the bullet. He did not require medical attention.
"That man pointed the gun at my father and pulled the trigger, but the gun didn't go off. Then he turned it on me and shot without hesitation. He wanted his girlfriend and his kid and that was that."
Some details of the abduction, chase and shooting were still unclear yesterday evening. But according to witnesses and police, Starks had previously threatened Umphrey, 35, of Sheraden, since the birth of their 10-month-old child. She had obtained a protection from abuse order against him. Starks was recently arrested and jailed for violating the PFA.
Parishioners said Starks entered the church, a block from Langley High School, and walked halfway down the left aisle to where Umphrey was sitting with their child.
They said Starks grabbed Umphrey by the hair, pulled a gun from a shoulder bag and punched her in the face with it. After firing at those who tried to intervene, he waved the gun and told people to back off as he dragged Umphrey and her child out of the front door of the church and across Sherwood Avenue.
During the struggle, Umphrey dropped the baby in the middle of the street. After picking up the child, Starks pushed Umphrey into his van, parked about 30 yards away on Bergman Street.
Starks, Umphrey and the child sat in the vehicle for 20 to 30 minutes as police, called by several members of the congregation, began to arrive and set up crime scene tape and roadblocks. Teens and adults gathered in a grassy lot adjacent to the high school and in a basketball court a block away.
As police called for a second hostage negotiator and snipers to be brought to the scene at 2:45 p.m., Starks sped off down Bergman Street, turned right onto Hillsboro Street, skirted a police roadblock and sped down Chartiers Avenue and through the Corliss Tunnel with at least 10 police cars in pursuit.
"He was just sitting in his car on Bergman for 20 minutes or so when he backed up, then sped forward down Bergman. Police had roadblocks everywhere. I don't see how he got away," said Bill Smith, who was watching from the corner of Sherwood Avenue and Sheraden Boulevard.
Congregation members began to emerge from the church only after Starks drove away, as police had locked them in for their safety for about an hour. Many seemed stunned by what they had seen. Several women were crying.
Donald Reid, who could see Umphrey during the service, said Starks moved fast when he entered the church.
"The guy came in real quick, pulled his gun and punched the woman in the face with it, then pulled her out by the hair," Reid said. "He shot one of the brothers in church while everyone was still singing and praising the Lord."
Nekodie Mudd, another congregation member, said Starks had caused trouble at the church before.
"Yes, he had come by before, two or three months ago, and gave us a hard time," Mudd said.
Starks drove the minivan out of the West End and onto the Parkway East, exiting at Squirrel Hill and driving with as many as 30 different police cars in pursuit through that neighborhood, East Liberty and Wilkinsburg and back onto the parkway, according to state police Trooper Robin Mungo. He drove through the Monroeville turnpike interchange and onto the turnpike, driving in excess of 70 mph until spotting a police barricade near the New Stanton exit in the form of a Stinger Stop Spikes tire deflation device.
Mungo said Starks used an emergency turn area to make a U-turn before the exit and headed back west toward Pittsburgh, exiting at Monroeville before he would have encountered another spikes strip set up by police. At the Monroeville toll area, he encountered traffic and struck two vehicles, one of them the red convertible in which Sondra Dugan, of North Huntingdon, was riding, along with her daughter and granddaughter.
Dugan said police were on the scene quickly and she heard shots fired.
"Cops surrounded the van and I heard several shots fired," said Dugan, who was with family members in the car. "It all happened so fast. We heard gunfire and my daughter grabbed by granddaughter and they hit the floor. The suspect looked me directly into the eye, and police pulled him out of the van."
Mungo said at least two bullets were fired, one striking Umphrey in the abdomen and the other lodging in the side sliding door on the passenger side of the van. She declined to comment on who did the shooting.
Starks was shot in the right arm. His condition was not available. His arraignment was pending.
The infant was put in the custody of Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families caseworkers.
: Para Ordnance, new SIGS, Kahr, Colt...sure I'm missing some others.
