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An Elliott man was killed Sunday afternoon when he was crushed by his car after a hydraulic jack apparently collapsed, a spokesman for the Allegheny County Coroner's Office said.

The name of the man, a 46-year-old resident of Wilhelm Street, was being withheld pending notification of relatives.

The accident occurred in a yard on Uvilla Way behind Wilhelm Street where the man was working underneath his four-door sedan, investigators said. A passerby spotted his body pinned beneath the wreckage shortly before 4 p.m. and went to the Zone 4 police station in the West End, where he notified Sgt. Craig Campbell.

Campbell notified 911 dispatchers before going to the scene with other officers and finding the body.

Motorcyclist killed in three-vehicle crash

A motorcyclist was killed in a three-vehicle accident over the weekend along Route 400 near the Moon Bridge in North Bethlehem Township, Washington County Coroner S. Timothy Warco said.

The motorcyclist, James Howard Shultz, 54, of Waynesburg, Greene County, was pronounced dead at The Washington Hospital with injuries suffered in the crash that occurred at 11:15 a.m., Warco said. A passenger on the bike, Barbra Jo Shultz, 51, was flown to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Oakland with leg injuries.

State police said the accident occurred after a eastbound motorist stopped to allow another motorist to turn. A car driven by Ralph Natali, 79, of Fredericktown, Washington County, tried to halt but could not. Natali's car slide into the rear of the parked motorist and then into the westbound lane where it struck the motorcycle head-on, troopers said.

Fired officer wants to bar councilman

The attorney for a fired Erie police officer wants a city councilman barred from a council hearing later this month to determine whether the officer gets his job back.

Former officer Sean Perseo was fired last August after pleading guilty to violating a protection-from-abuse order obtained by his estranged wife.

In July 2001, Perseo was acquitted of charges that he raped and beat the woman seven months earlier. But because the abuse conviction prevents him from carrying a weapon until Aug. 15, a decision on whether he would be rehired was delayed until a city council hearing on Aug. 28.

Perseo's lawyer, David Ridge, doesn't want Councilman Mario Bagnoni sitting in judgment of Perseo because of statements he's made.

"I wouldn't vote to reinstate him if Jesus Christ himself came down. I have no use for a man who hits a woman," Bagnoni said. "He may have been acquitted, but so was O.J. Simpson."

17-year-old found dead in motel room

Toxicology tests are being conducted to help determine what caused the death of a 17-year-old boy whose body was found in a bedroom littered with bottles of alcohol and what appeared to be small packages of heroin at a motel in East Franklin Township near West Kittanning, Armstrong County Coroner Robert Bower said Sunday.

The body of Zachary Joseph Zion of Ford City was found Saturday morning in a room occupied by two other individuals, Bower said. An autopsy was inconclusive and it will take a week or two for the toxicology tests to be completed, he said.

Bower said authorities are trying to determine if the suspected narcotics contributed to Zion's death.

Zion and the others had checked into the room Friday night, Bower said. His body was found about 7 a.m. Saturday.

Woman injured in crash on 100-foot hill

A Castle Shannon woman remained hospitalized in critical condition Sunday with injuries suffered after her car flipped down a 100-foot embankment and she had to crawl back up the hill to get help.

Christina Rivera, 19, said she was driving along Thompson Road in Fawn Township when the accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. She crawled back up to the road and collapsed when she was found by a passing motorist about five hours later, police said.

Rivera was flown by emergency helicopter to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Oakland.

Another alligator seen in Beaver River

Just when some thought it was safe to go back into the Beaver River, another alligator has been spotted.

Hours after a three-foot American alligator was hooked last week from the Beaver River by an angler near the Townsend Dam near New Brighton, police officers and others saw another alligator about 200 yards upstream.

Police officers were keeping watch on the river and occasionally tossing bait, such as chicken, into the river in an attempt to get the reptile to reveal itself. They said it appeared too young and small to attack anyone.

Tim Rodriguez, 22, landed the first alligator, spotted Tuesday, after breaking four fishing lines. The gator, which weighed 7 pounds, will eventually be sent to Georgia.

The reptiles are causing a stir in Beaver County, where three pacus, vegetarian cousins of the piranhas, were landed last summer.

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