PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Police in Pittsburgh raided a homeless encampment on Wednesday, but officers said their targets were people preying on people experiencing homelessness.  

KDKA-TV was there on Wednesday night when two dozen Pittsburgh Bureau of Police officers descended on a homeless encampment on Grant Street, arresting suspected drug dealers.

Acting on search warrants and the findings of a months-long investigation, narcotics and violence prevention officers converged on the Downtown encampment, handcuffing and detaining several people as they searched the tents. According to incident reports, they seized large quantities of suspected crack cocaine. 

“After police activity and investigation, they realized there were people coming into this encampment, as we’ve seen on others, that are preying on the vulnerable population, using them as camouflage or cover to engage in illegal activity, including drug dealing,” Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said.

Officers arrested five individuals, including two who they say did not live there but stored and sold drugs from two of the tents.

Deidra Lomax of Washington County is charged with possession with intent to distribute 50 individual bags of crack cocaine. The criminal complaint says Davidt Brown of Turtle Creek had 39 pieces of crack as well as powder cocaine he had been selling to the people experiencing homelessness there.

Lomax was released on her own recognizance, but Brown remains in the Allegheny County Jail unable to make his $1 bail. 

“We never want to go after people in our vulnerable population,” Schmidt said. “We want the people who are the perpetrators and the predatory actions stopped.”

According to the criminal complaints, police began their investigation by responding to complaints from business owners who had observed open-air drug transactions, violence, public urination and defecation at the site.  

Schmidt said the site is not being decommissioned but is under study by a city and county committee that evaluates the encampments and whether they should be taken down. 

About half of the encampment was taken down during the raid. And while many of the residents left, others returned on Thursday while the city and county evaluated whether to take down the rest of it. 

Former Ohio State Buckeyes star quarterback Justin Fields has been talked about a lot during NFL training camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. Videos have been coming out and going viral of some of his throws and questions have started coming up about whether or not he could actually win the starting job over Russell Wilson.

After being drafted with the No. 11 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Fields was expected to be the franchise quarterback for the Chicago Bears. However, the team did not build well around him and the situation ended quickly.

Looking ahead to the 2024 season, could Fields actually end up beating out Wilson for the starting job at some point?

Mark Madden, a beat writer covering the Steelers, does not think Fields has what it takes to be an NFL quarterback. In a recent quote, he brutally ripped into the 25-year-old signal caller.

“If Fields has to play, all will be revealed. Just like with Pickett. That’s what makes the fictionalized quarterback competition at Steelers camp so laughable: The decision, which has long since been made, is obvious. Fields is potential that hasn’t much been realized and likely won’t be. Wilson is polished, professional and knowledgeable.”

Clearly, Madden is not a big fan of what he has seen from Fields so far during training camp.

During the 2023 NFL season with the Bears, Fields ended up playing in 13 games. He completed 61.4 percent of his pass attempts for 2,562 yards, 16 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. Fields also picked up 657 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

A change of scenery was very necessary for Fields. The media in Chicago had completely turned on him. Nothing he did was right and fans were trending towards wanting him gone.

Landing with Pittsburgh was the perfect fit as well. If anyone can help him reach his full potential, it would be Mike Tomlin.

Expect to continue hearing about Fields in the coming weeks. He has looked good in training camp, but there are still many who don’t believe he can turn his career around.

Hopefully, he’ll be able to prove them wrong. Ohio State fans will always root for Fields to get his career figured out and live up to the potential that he showed with the Buckeyes.

Welcome to the never-ending Brandon Aiyuk and Pittsburgh Steelers saga. The Steelers and San Francisco 49ers have remained in deep negotiations for Aiyuk for the better part of three days, and yet nothing has been resolved on either end.

So, the real question remains: what is the holdup between the Steelers and the 49ers? Aiyuk does not want to play for the Cleveland Browns or New England Patriots, and the contract side of things with Aiyuk is essentially done with the Steelers.