Friendship neighbors surprised by carjacking of nonprofit’s van

PITTSBURGH — We’re getting a new perspective on a Pittsburgh carjacking that ended with a police confrontation at a Monroeville Burger King.

Witnesses tell Channel 11 the suspect, who police identify as Joshua Bishop, 39, was shot in a parking lot along Friendship Avenue while trying to steal a van. We are now piecing together his journey, which ended 40 minutes away in a Burger King parking lot.

New video from Facebook shows the moment Pitcairn police cornered Bishop in the fast food restaurant’s parking lot.

Both Monroeville and Turtle Creek Police have now filed charges against Bishop. Court documents accuse him of a hit and run in Turtle Creek, as he was on the run in the stolen car, minutes before he was cornered in the Burger King parking lot.

One neighbor said he was in his backyard at the time of the alleged carjacking.

“I heard a yell, then two pop pops, and then I heard and saw the van come flying up the alley,” Steve Okabayashi said.

He called 911 moments after hearing the shots.

“I thought it was a drive-by shooting,” he said.

Kye Bowles also lives in Friendship and said it’s typically a quiet neighborhood.

“Usually, if something jumps out here, it’s like a neighborhood cat on the sidewalk. Nothing like that, that I’ve ever seen really happen here,” Bowles said.

The stolen van was owned by a nonprofit, Earthen Vessels Outreach. They didn’t want to comment.

But neighbors say they feel safer knowing someone is in custody.

“They caught him. So that’s the bottom line, right? He didn’t get away,” Okabayashi said.

Pittsburgh Police have not yet filed charges against Bishop for the alleged carjacking, but he is being held in the Allegheny County Jail on the other charges.

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