A 19-year-old charged with stabbing a man in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood, so badly that officers found the victim’s intestines protruding, was released the same day on a promise to come back to court.
He did not have to post a dime. Eight days later he was the prime suspect in yet another stabbing, this one at an East Liberty bus station, and he is now charged with attempted homicide.
District Judge Dan Butler signed the non-monetary bond. Pittsburgh Police Chief Jason Lando, expressed disbelief that the suspect was walking free. This all occurred in Democrat-run Allegheny County.
On September 23, police were called to the 5000 block of Penn Avenue after a fight that began on a bus. WPXI reported that officers arrived to a man whose intestines were hanging out of his body. Delvin Dobbins, 19, was chased a short distance, tased, and found with a bloodied knife. He was charged with aggravated assault. The victim was hospitalized in serious condition and survived.
Chief Lando addressed the case the next morning on local radio.
“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.”
Incredibly, Butler released Dobbins on a non-monetary bond that same day. No cash. A signature and a date. Sources told WPXI’s 11 Investigates that Butler should not have done it. The Fifth Judicial District, which oversees Allegheny County magistrates, declined to comment.
Lando said he assumed the suspect was still locked up.
