The somber tale of two intersecting lives came to a legal conclusion in Pittsburgh, as 36-year-old Lukas Kislak pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the fatal shooting of Alexander Yerkey, a young man whose aspirations were cut short on a tragic afternoon under the Bloomfield Bridge. Kislak, a Braddock resident, now faces a 15 to 40-year sentence for third-degree murder, and an additional one to two years for carrying a firearm without a license, WPXI reported.
The Bloomfield community still reels from the loss of Yerkey, who was 26 at the time of his death and deeply immersed in his love for the City of Pittsburgh, according to a detail reported by TribLIVE. The University of Pittsburgh graduate and passionate city planner had been en route to play baseball on March 26, 2023, when Kislak, overcome by a severe mental break driven by paranoid delusions, shot him in the head without provocation. The ShotSpotter alert system brought police to the critically wounded Yerkey, who later succumbed to his injuries.
During Kislak’s hearing, his defense attorney, Heath Leff, highlighted his client’s lifelong struggle with mental health issues and substance addiction, noting the significant impact of his familial background, as documented by TribLIVE. Kislak’s mother was schizophrenic, his grandfather and girlfriend had both committed suicide, and he had previously overdosed 17 times. Leff underscored that Kislak’s actions, while monstrous, did not necessarily make him a monster: “You can do a monstrous thing and not be a monster,” Leff said, asserting that everyone is “more than the worst things we’ve done.”…