Latest news with #EllwoodCity
CBS News
23-07-2025
- Health
- CBS News
More than 100 joint military members provide free healthcare for Ellwood City residents
While school is out for the summer, the hallways and rooms at Lincoln High School have become venues for service. "This has been two years in the making," Colonel Nicole Hurley, Headquarters of the Air Force Reserve Command Commanders, said. "This has been nine months' worth of planning." Those plans culminated in lines. "We brought with us here about 160 joint military members," Heather Edsall, Air Force Reserve Command Innovative Readiness Training Medical Program Manager, said. There are people from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. They're providing dental care, eye care, eyeglass making – among other things. "These are doctors, nurses, veterinarians, optometrists, and dentists that do this every day in their home station and their civilian practices," Edsall said. It's also all free of charge for people coming down. "A lot of citizens can't afford this healthcare that they're receiving, Mayor Anthony Court of Ellwood City said. It's all to prepare these service members. "Bringing patients through the door helps us simulate what would happen if we had sort of a need to provide care on a mass scale," Edsall said. It's a readiness training exercise with real community benefits. "A lot of dedicated people have come forward through this process," Mayor Court said. People like Colonel Nicole Hurley wanted to bring this to Ellwood City. She was born and raised there. She says she's seen the decline in healthcare coverage in the city, and was happy to see the community show out. "The community has been, really, really supportive," Hurley said. "So – it's meant a lot."
CBS News
17-06-2025
- CBS News
Ellwood City officer demoted, suspended without pay after confrontation with man at gas station, mayor says
The Ellwood City police officer involved in a confrontation at a gas station with a young man has been disciplined by the borough council. Ellwood City Mayor Anthony Court said on Monday that officer Rob Magnifico has been demoted, suspended without pay and has to take classes "concerning de-escalating situations and also anger management" after he was seen on video confronting and shoving a 20-year-old man to the ground at the Sheetz on Fifth Street. "I just want to say that we took this matter very seriously," Court said after Monday's council meeting. "A lot of time and effort went into this, decisions made by myself and the governing body. We want to continue to move forward as a community." He added that the police union's bargaining unit can appeal the discipline. Police officer's viral confrontation caught on video Mayor Court said on June 9 that the officer was under investigation after the confrontation, which happened on June 6. Devin Hartmann told KDKA that he and his friends were getting food at the gas station when they were told to leave because they were recording. Hartmann said they left the Sheetz, but he returned because he forgot his cellphone. An argument with Sheetz employees ensued over the phone and Hartmann said he refused to leave without the device, leading to the police being called. Two officers, including Magnifico, responded. Hartmann said he told officers it was his phone and put the password in for proof, but he said they wouldn't give it to him. The video then shows the officer coming from behind the food counter and pushing Hartmann, causing him to hit the wall and the floor. "I was really scared," Hartmann previously told KDKA. "I was shocked, I thought something bad was going to happen." The confrontation was recorded by Hartmann's 16-year-old friend. "I thought it was the right thing to do, because I didn't know what was going to happen after that," 16-year-old Asher Rausch-Hicks previously told KDKA. "I was scared for my friend and myself." Magnifico has been on the force for 26 years. He is also the head football coach for Riverside High School.
CBS News
10-06-2025
- CBS News
After video shows Ellwood City officer confronting man, another shares similar encounter
An Ellwood City police officer is being investigated following a controversial video. A man who had a similar encounter a few years ago spoke with KDKA-TV. Perry Malcolm said he was tased when he went to the police department to dispute a parking ticket in 2017. You can't see anything, but you can hear Perry Malcolm and two other officers. He identifies one of them as officer Rob Magnifico. "They ended up dropping everything once I went to court and showed them the video," Malcolm said. "Magnifico and the other officer, they took me to the ground." Malcolm continued. "I cursed at him, and he said, 'why do you think you could say whatever you want?'" he said. Fast forward to 2025 at the Sheetz in Ellwood City last Friday with Magnifico and 20-year-old Devin Hartmann. "I'm actually surprised he didn't do worse, but I feel bad for the young man that has to deal with this now. Hopefully he gets the justice he deserves, or at least the process works its way out," Malcolm said. "Do you feel you ever got the justice you deserve?" KDKA-TV's Mamie Bah reports. "No, like I said, he's still here, he's still going to end up retiring with a pension," Malcolm answered. Mayor Anthony Court on Monday said there was an investigation into the 2017 video, but it went nowhere. "That came to fruition, as we proceeded, it didn't get much steam," Court said. Magnifico is the head football coach for Riverside Beaver County School District. KDKA-TV reached out to the superintendent but didn't hear back by airtime. "I happened to talk to a couple of the guys on the team, and they tell me how he's a good coach. But I mean, when he retaliates like that, it's kind of hard to paint a picture that's nice about him, you know?" Malcolm said. Magnifico is on personal time off. Right now, city leaders are investigating his conduct. KDKA-TV reached out to Magnifico to set up an interview but hasn't heard back.
CBS News
09-06-2025
- CBS News
Ellwood City police officer under investigation after confrontation with man at gas station
Ellwood City Mayor Anthony Court is looking into the conduct of an officer involved in a confrontation that was caught on video. "We don't condone behavior unbecoming of a police officer. I'm not saying that's what transpired, but it's an ongoing investigation," Court said. On Friday at 1 a.m., Devin Hartmann said he and his friends were getting food at Sheetz on Fifth Street when they were told to leave because they were recording. Hartmann said they left, but he returned because he forgot his cellphone. That's when he said it all went wrong. "I called the Sheetz, they're like yes, we have a phone, we're going to leave it in the office for you. I come back, whole different story, we don't have an iPhone." Video shows Ellwood City police officer pushing man Hartmann said that when he refused to leave, the police were called. Two officers responded to the Sheetz. The 20-year-old said he told officers it was his phone and even put the password in, but they wouldn't give it to him. Video shows the officer come from behind the food counter and push Hartmann, causing him to hit the wall and the floor. "I was really scared," Hartmann said. "I was shocked, I thought something bad was going to happen." Eventually, Hartmann gets up, gets his phone and asks the officer for his information. Hartmann's friend, 16-year-old Asher Rausch-Hicks, recorded the incident. He felt it was the only way he could help. "I thought it was the right thing to do because I didn't know what was going to happen after that," Rausch-Hicks said. "I was scared for my friend and myself." This is the only video KDKA has access to, as Ellwood police don't have body cameras. The video's been shared over 1,000 times on social media, with more than 295,000 views. KDKA asked Mayor Court, "What did you think when you saw the video, mayor?" "I'd like to believe, too, we like to de-escalate problems," he said. KDKA followed up, "Do you feel your officer was doing that in that moment?" "In the beginning, yes. But as things transpired, things a little bit escalated, and we don't condone that behavior," the mayor said. Currently, the officer is on personal time off. The mayor said he's been with the department for 26 years and was recently promoted to sergeant despite being investigated in 2017 for excessive force. "That came to fruition as we proceeded. It didn't get much steam," Court said. "I feel like that officer should be fired. I feel he does not deserve a gun at all if he's lashing out at people like that," Hartmann said.
CBS News
08-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Family of Holocaust liberator from Ellwood City keeps history alive, 80 years later
Thursday marked 80 years since the end of World War II in Europe and the end of the Holocaust, which killed 6 million Jews. Shortly after the war started, one young man was just beginning his life in the small borough of Ellwood City, Lawrence County, when he was drafted. Eventually, he would liberate a concentration camp, and what he saw was unimaginable and would stay with him the rest of his life. Throughout her childhood, Patty Partington didn't know much about her dad's time overseas. "My father, like most servicemen, when they came home, they didn't talk about the war much," Partington said. "They sort of felt like their story wasn't any different than anybody else. He said, 'We came home, and we just wanted to get on with our lives.'" It took Guy Prestia 50 years, but he eventually opened up, not just to family, but also to the public, sharing his memories, until he died last August at 102. "The stench there was just so bad that you could never forget about that," Prestia said in 2022 during a talk with students at Riverside High School, hosted by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Prestia graduated from Lincoln High School in 1940 and was working in a machine shop when he was drafted. He spent 511 days in combat with the 45th Infantry Division before receiving an assignment he and his fellow brothers weren't prepared for. "He said, 'That's when I realized what we were fighting for,'" Partington said. Dachau was the first and longest-operating concentration camp created by the Nazis, located near Munich. When Prestia and his unit arrived there on April 29, 1945, they came across dozens of rail cars carrying what they thought were stacks of logs. "When we got closer, we saw that they were dead bodies," Prestia said. "They were men, women, children on there, on that train." The camp's commanding officers had already abandoned the site, knowing the Allies were on the way. To try to hide their crimes, the Nazis sent thousands of prisoners on death marches, and left behind thousands more, either dead or barely holding on, with guards who didn't put up much resistance. In the kitchen, Prestia said they found big pots of soup, which they later learned had been poisoned. "They had planned on killing everyone in that camp. They didn't want any survivors," Partington said. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, there were more than 200,000 prisoners in Dachau between 1933 and 1945. The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial reports more than 41,000 died there, although the exact number is unclear. Prestia's division, with other American forces, liberated about 32,000. "They were so undernourished that the medics told us that if you gave them any food, that would probably kill them," Prestia said. Eight days later, on May 8, the war in Europe ended, and while Prestia was at Dachau for only one day, it never left him. "He said, 'I believe it taught me empathy for other people in other situations outside of myself,'" Partington said. It's a lesson his daughter said is just as imperative in our world today as it was 80 years ago, when her father helped end the atrocities of the Holocaust.
