PITTSBURGH — The US Marshals Service works to track down violent offenders and wanted fugitives every day. It is one of their core functions.
Locally, they arrest homicide suspects, sex offenders and more. But rarely is the public clued into the level of planning it takes to make these arrests or the level of danger the unit can encounter on any given day.
11 Investigates got an inside look at that process during recent ride-alongs with the Marshals’ fugitive task force.
“We treat all of these the same, like everybody is – presume that they’re gonna be armed when we go to the door,” said Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Jeremy DeLano.
DeLano leads Western PA’s fugitive task force, a team specially trained in tracking fugitives and taking them into custody.
“The subject that’s wanted for the homicide is on fed supervised release,” DeLano said. “He’s been jumping around, and this is the first time we’ve been able to get him at an address for a period of time.”
DeLano explains that the task force got involved at the request of the city of Washington police department.
They move swiftly, executing a coordinated approach to surround a home in McKeesport. Seconds later, it is surrounded.
“Trevon McCrary, police with a warrant! Come to the door! Do it now,” task force officers shout into the home. “Come to the door or it’s coming down!”
Ten people, including several kids, come out the home. Trevon McCrary is among them. He had been on the run for a month, wanted in the homicide of his half-brother.
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“Trevon, did you shoot Nasstylejah?” investigative reporter Jatara McGee asked McCrary.
“No,” he responded.
“Why are you being arrested for this?” she followed up.
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me questions? Don’t ya’ll know?” McCrary said.
Washington police say McCrary shot Nasstylejah Wilkerson several times near John F. Kennedy Catholic Elementary School in April. He died at the hospital. Police spent weeks investigating and looking for McCrary.
“That’s the ultimate goal is to bring somebody to justice,” said Washington Police Detective John Hritz.
The USMS fugitive task force tracks down the hardest-to-find suspects and fugitives, learns their routines and meticulously plans how to take them with the element of surprise.
“A lot of the fugitives we’ve been chasing lately are younger, of a younger demographic. And a lot of them are armed,” said US Marshal Stephen Eberle for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Eberle was appointed by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2023. He oversees the task forces in Erie, Johnstown and Pittsburgh.
“We want to make sure we’re doing things as safe as possible for our deputies, our task force officers and also for the people we’re apprehending and the general public as well,” Eberle said.
“There’s a reason that the Marshals have been asked to work these cases. They are violent fugitives, and that’s why we are asked to help,” said Deputy US Marshal Alisha. “We do recognize that we’re taking their freedom away. We’re the people showing up to do that. But there’s a higher – there’s a judicial system that sends us to do that."
On the task force’s next operation, there are almost a dozen targets in several different states.
DeLano’s team headed to Lawrenceville to arrest one of the men who is wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration on a federal indictment. They allege he is involved in a drug ring with ties to a cartel.
The operation, carried out in July, aimed to disrupt a drug pipeline flowing from out of the country into Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.
The task force finds the target, Raymond Simmons, in the middle of the afternoon. He did not put up a fight.
Simmons was one of three people arrested in Pittsburgh. Others were caught in California, New Mexico, New York and North Carolina. Two fugitives remain on the run. They’re being searched for by the US Marshals Service in other regions.
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