Pittsburgh Police call for community's help to reduce violence :: 08/23/2011

Five lives spent on the wrong side of the lawended in gunfire in August, Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper said Friday.

"Innocent people aren't being killed in the street," Harper said. "There was criminal history there."

Police are investigating seven homicides this month. Of those, police believe two victims did not have criminal backgrounds that might have played a role in their deaths.

Three-year-old Zy'Miere Sewell died of a gunshot wound in his head in his mother's apartment on Tioga Street in Homewood on Aug. 9. Darius Grimsley, 29, of the North Side was fatally shot when an argument escalated on Alpine Avenue and Garfield Street in the North Side on Sunday.

The seven people killed in August all were young black males, as were the majority of the city's 28 homicide victims so far this year, according to data from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office.

"The issue here is because they have guns; every time they fire, they're putting innocents in jeopardy," Harper said. "We have too many guns in the wrong hands."

Harper spoke at a news conference alongside community activists to discuss the recent spate of shootings.

"We all realize it's not just a police issue," Harper said. "It's all of us working together."

The city tallied 58 homicides in 2010, according to the medical examiner's office. City police said 42 of those victims had prior involvement in crime.