Jasper Hilliard, 22, is facing multiple charges including aggravated assault and robbery for what police say happened in Shadyside on Saturday.
Neighbors in the tight-knit community of Shadyside are in disbelief after what happened on Lehigh Avenue, after a man described by neighbors as a wonderful 70-year-old man was attacked and stabbed in the neck.
“How could they do that to someone like him?” Virginia Flaherty said. “I didn’t know what to think. I thought someone was really crazy for doing that, and I knew it wasn’t anything he did to provoke him.”
As neighbors called 911 to take the stabbing victim to a hospital after 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Pittsburgh police say a witness approached them with video footage of Jasper Hilliard. Police were able to obtain a description of the 22-year-old. While this was going on, officers learned of another 911 call on Lehigh Avenue from a man who had entered a stranger’s home, covered in blood. The two witnesses inside that house say the man matching Jasper Hilliard’s description removed a green shirt he was seen wearing on earlier surveillance video and left it in the house.
Neighbors who live along Lehigh Avenue, which is just two blocks from popular Highland Avenue restaurants and shops, say it’s concerning.
Dominika Oliver said: “I was surprised. I would not have expected something like this to happen here. I walk around here late at night, even sometimes, and I feel safe in the neighborhood and that makes me a little more Leary, especially when something like that happens.”
Pittsburgh police were able to catch Hilliard in the driveway of the home that he had reportedly broken into. When questioned, Hilliard confessed to stabbing the man in the head, chest and neck. Hilliard, who lives down the street on South Highland Avenue, allegedly told police that he thought he killed the victim and that he chose him out of “convenience.”
Police say the stabbing victim is in critical condition. Neighbors say they are praying for him and will be there when he gets out of the hospital.
Flaherty said: “Some people call him mr. Shadyside some people know him as Al. Some people don’t even know his name, they just say that the guy with the suspenders is very friendly.”
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