PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates has uncovered new information about a teenager arrested in connection with a stabbing last week.
Delvin Dobbins, 19, has not been charged in the stabbing at a Pittsburgh bus station Thursday night, but police tell Chief Investigator Rick Earle that he is the prime suspect.
Dobbins was released on a non-monetary bond after that stabbing on Wednesday in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood.
And on top of all of this, he was accused of shooting a convenience store clerk two years ago in the South Side.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> 11 Investigates Exclusive: Teen charged in South Side shooting was in police custody 2 months ago
Police Chief Jason Lando addressed the Garfield case on a local radio station Friday morning.
“I remember in the police report it said when the officers arrived on scene the man’s intestines were protruding,” Lando said. “The officers immediately began rendering aid to prevent him from bleeding out.”
After a short chase, police used a taser to subdue the suspect. Dobbins was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
But 11 Investigates has learned Dobbins was released by District Judge Dan Butler on a non-monetary bond that same day.
And police say Dobbins is now the prime suspect in Thursday’s stabbing along the East Busway.
“I said, how can that be? He just stabbed someone in the stomach a week ago. Surely he would still be in jail,” Lando said. “And I learned that the 19-year-old from the Penn Ave. stabbing was released on a non-monetary bond, which means you basically promise that you’re just going to show up to court. You don’t put up any money.”
Sources tell 11 Investigates that District Judge Butler should not have released Dobbins on a non-monetary bond.
Two years ago, 11 Investigates reported that Dobbins had been arrested for a burglary, but because Shuman Juvenile Detention Center had closed, there was no place to hold him.
He was released, and two months later police arrested and charged him with shooting a convenience store clerk on the South Side.
Lando says he’s concerned.
“If they arrest someone who stabbed someone in the stomach and tried to kill that person, and that individual was let out of jail and hurt someone else or hurt one of my officers, I’d be very irate.”
11 Investigators reached out to the Fifth Judicial District, which oversees magistrates in Allegheny County. They declined comment.
The two stabbing victims and the shooting victim all survived.
It’s unclear what happened with the criminal case involving the shooting, but we do know Dobbins was released at some point.
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