With homicide rates on the rise in Fayette County, the DA is cracking down
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (KDKA) -- The Fayette County district attorney is cracking down as homicide rates are on the rise.
So far in 2024, there have been seven homicides. Last year at this time, there were five.
"I'm not surprised. It's kind of gone downhill in the past couple of years since I've lived here and it just keeps getting worse," said Fayette County resident Alysia Jaso.
Mike Aubele, who took office this year as district attorney, said violence hasn't necessarily been on the rise.
"A lot of these cases are what I would call 'one off,' something a little unusual. Not gang violence, not something that is really a threat to the community at large. These are isolated incidents," Aubele said. "We had a domestic. We had a kind of a fight. We had boyfriend/girlfriend dispute. We had a business dispute. So it's been a lot of different things."
Jaso told KDKA-TV she moved out of Uniontown to get away from the violence.
"I definitely feel it's definitely worth 20 minutes to drive to town to go to the store. It's peaceful out there. It's quiet. I don't hear anything," Jaso said.
"There isn't a day goes by anymore without a shooting," said Smithfield resident Jackie Hughes.
The first homicide of the year was on New Year's Day when Nemacolin employee Nicole Zambrano was found shot to death in her home by her husband Art Guty.
Other cases involved a fatal stabbing, shootings and a missing teenager who was found dead on an abandoned property.
"I don't think it's anything that the community needs to feel that things are becoming less safe in our community. It's just unfortunate circumstances," Aubele said.
Aubele said his office is cracking down on offenders, especially those coming into the county involved in drugs or gangs.
He said the past administration set a precedence that he's already started changing.
"We have a lot of people that come from Pittsburgh, from Wilkinsburg, from other areas, that come down into Fayette County, even from Michigan, because they know that they're going to leave with house arrest or probation or we're just going to drop charges. And that's something that's the culture that we're trying to change here. If you come here and you deal drugs here, you're going to be punished," Aubele said.
Aubele did admit that youth violence is getting worse.
"We have at least several homicides pending that involve juveniles as young as 14 years old at the time of the commission of the offense. And that is, unfortunately, it's a generational issue," Aubele said.
To combat the crime, he said his office has hired more staff to assist in investigations, including three additional assistant district attorneys and support staff.
"With that, we've been able to get notices out better. We've been able to get better contact with our officers, better contact with our victims, which have made our cases better, which have made our investigation better, which has made the whole process better for everybody in the county," Aubele said.
He said they've also hired a county detective, something he said the past administration never had.
"It's going to improve our investigations. It is going to improve communication and it's going to benefit everybody in the county as well," Aubele said.
Of the seven homicides in Fayette County this year, Aubele said they've solved six cases and hope to make an arrest in the seventh soon.