Authorities hunt ’gator in the Mon

BELLE VERNON — Authorities are investigating an unconfirmed sighting of an alligator in the Monongahela River.

The Southwest Regional police department said a resident reported seeing a 6- to 7-foot alligator swimming upstream in the river in Belle Vernon, Fayette County at about midnight Tuesday.

Police said investigators determined that the animal may have been seen at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, when a Brownsville man watching ducks in the river reported that “something took one of the ducks down — the whole duck.”

Police Chief John Hartman said volunteer firefighters and the Coast Guard searched Wednesday. Police are also seeking help from the Fish and Boat Commission and the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Hartman said four similar sightings have been reported in the region since 2007.

Selfie links suspect to shooting of clerk

PITTSBURGH — Prosecutors say a suspect’s selfie shows him wearing the same jacket he had on when he shot a clerk during an attempted robbery at a suburban Pittsburgh music, movie and video game store.

Prosecutors showed George Wilson’s photograph at a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

A judge ordered the 33-year-old to stand trial on charges including aggravated assault, robbery and reckless endangerment in the shooting of 23-year-old Michael Allen.

Allen testified Wilson shot him in the shoulder at The Exchange store in Ross Township in December when he couldn’t get the register open. He said the bullet is too close to his spine for surgery.

Wilson’s lawyer said prosecutors have the wrong suspect. Wilson is due back in court May 26.

Video game used to find wanted man

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police say they used online video game logins to track down a suspect in a missing person case.

Hubert Wingate was arraigned on charges including homicide, theft and abuse of a corpse in the disappearance and death of 34-year-old Andre Gray.

The 30-year-old Wingate is jailed without bail pending an April 17 preliminary hearing. He’d been in jail since February on a Colorado assault warrant and a concealed gun charge.

Police said Wingate sent a beacon to investigators when he logged into the PlayStation network using Gray’s account and his own e-mail address.

Gray’s body surfaced last month in the Ohio River in West Virginia.

He went missing in October and died of a gunshot wound.

Official doubts candle caused fire

NEW CASTLE — An investigator said a candle likely didn’t start house fire that killed two young boys, despite their father’s claims to the contrary.

Cullen “CJ” Whittier has told reporters he believed the candle started the fire in his New Castle home early Tuesday. Whittier, the dead boys’ mother, two other boys — ages 6 and 2 — and a set of grandparents escaped the fire in New Castle.

But 5-year-old Isaiah Whittier and 3-month-old Roman Whittier did not. The cause of their deaths was pending autopsy results.

City Fire Marshal David Viggiano said it appears the fire started on an upholstered bedroom chair, though he stopped short of saying what caused it to burn.