Two men waived their right to a preliminary hearing before District Judge Kim M. Hoots in Wilkinsburg last week on gun-related charges.

According to criminal complaints filed by Wilkinsburg police, the arrests were the result of increased vigilance on Sept. 21 in response to the high number of homicides in Wilkinsburg over the past few months.

Aaron Brandon Lingard, 22, of 524 Seddon Ave., Braddock, waived his right to a hearing before Hoots on charges of firearms not to be carried without a license and carrying a loaded weapon. Wilkinsburg police saw two men walking in the 1000 block of Mill Street and stopped them.

Lingard possessed a Jimenez Arms 9mm loaded with 10 rounds in the magazine and one round in the chamber, according to a criminal complaint filed by police.

Antoni Davis, 30, of 3541 Laketon Rd., Penn Hills, waived his right to a hearing before Hoots on firearms not to be carried without a license, possession of a prohibited firearm and tampering with/fabricating physical evidence. According to a criminal complaint, police observed a large group in the 1500 block of Hunter Street being loud and drinking.

As they approached, they heard something metal hit the ground and discovered the magazine for a Kel Tec 9mm firearm.

Both men face hearings in Allegheny Common Pleas Court.

The area has been rocked by a number of homicides since Aug. 1, including:

• Roosevelt Robinson, 35, of Wilkinsburg was shot and killed after he urinated over the portico of a home on Franklin Avenue on Sept. 18 while playing a game of dominoes with friends.

• Elijah Washington, 17, whose body was found under the Larimer Avenue bridge on Sept. 5 in the nearby Larimer neighborhood, was discovered after his father conducted a search after hearing something might have happened to him.

• A badly decomposed body was found in a wooded and overgrown area behind a vacant home in the 1100 block of Sherman Street in Wilkinsburg on Sept. 1. The man, identified as George Anthony Cox Jr., 22, of Pittsburgh, died of two gunshot wounds and his death has been ruled a homicide.

• Emery Lamberto, 15, was killed and two others were injured in a shooting near the intersection of Wallace Avenue and Coal Street in Wilkinsburg on Aug. 24.

• Timothy Boyd, 41, was gunned down at about 3 a.m. Aug. 9 in the 1100 block of Pitt Street in Wilkinsburg. Police and Boyd's widow are appealing to the public for any information in this case. 

• Vondre Griffin, 23, a former Woodland Hills High School quarterback, was one of two men arrested in connection with a fatal shooting outside the after-hours Sportsman's Club Aug. 5 in McKeesport.

• Brandon Jones, 35, of Wilkinsburg was shot and killed Aug. 1 after a fight in front of his house in the 500 block of Coal Street, Wilkinsburg.

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