The Portage County Sheriff is asking for the public’s help in looking for a missing man.

Joseph Mullins (also known as “Little Joe”), 57, was last seen at 4:30 p.m. on December 19, 2014. He was believed to be in the area of 10500 block of Infirmary Road in Mantua Township.

Mullins was seen wearing a light brown Carhartt Jacket, a light grey sweatshirt, blue jeans with flannel lining, and black tennis shoes.

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He is 5’6″ with blond hair and hazel eyes.

Anyone with information on Mullins’ whereabouts is asked to call the Portage County Sheriff’s Office at 330-296-5100. Use extension zero.

Paul Kochu’s family waited until he missed his scheduled 7 a.m. shift at Allegheny General Hospital on Thursday before converging on Pittsburgh to look for him.

“He was very excited about getting that job,” said Jack Kochu, Paul’s father, about his son’s nursing position in the Intensive Care Unit. “When we found out that Paul didn’t clock in to work, that’s all we needed to know.”

The official search for the missing 22-year-old South Side man entered its third day on Saturday with his family convening a search party of dozens to comb about a 20-block area. Jack Kochu, a resident of Pottstown in Montgomery County, said between 70 and 100 people walked along the river from 37th to 10th street and covered that area “from the river to the hills.”

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“We were walking down the darker alleyways, looking in secluded areas,” he said. “We had some people by the river. We had some people go to the homeless towns under the bridges, we had several groups knocking on doors.”

A mix of people joined a search, including Paul’s co-workers at the hospital, friends from Duquesne University where he studied nursing and played baseball, family members from New Jersey and Ohio and people who simply wanted to help. They continued to distribute stacks of flyers drawn up by Jack and Paul’s sister Jessica Kochu, 29, who lives in Los Angeles, and arrived in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

The group met Saturday at the corner of Wharton and 22nd streets on the South Side, where one of Paul Kochu’s co-workers from the hospital brought sandwiches and boxes of hot coffee from Panera Bread.

He was last heard from Tuesday at 1:30 a.m.,his  family said, when he sent a text to his roommate. He has no history of drug abuse or mental health problems, his father said.

“He is one of the most well-adjusted men I’ve ever met,” Jack Kochu said. “He was very excited about coming home for Christmas. He had absolutely no reason to leave and not come back.”

Despite coming up empty after about four hours of searching, however, he remained optimistic.

“We just haven’t found the right bush yet,” he said.

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Missing Persons Unit is currently investigating the disappearance. The family has offered a reward of $7,500 for any information that could lead to finding him.

Two people were taken away in handcuffs after a robbery in Lexington Sunday night. It happened on Donabrook Court, but the suspects led police as far as Fayette Mall. Police say one of the robbers may still be on the loose.

On one of the busiest shopping nights of the year, Fayette Mall was lit up with police lights. Officers were staging their cars outside the entrances to the mall, as well as up and down Reynolds Road looking for a group of robbers. Shoppers saw the police lights, but many didn’t know police were looking for one of three armed robbers. Police say the robber may have escaped into the crowds at Fayette Mall.

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Officers say the robbers got away with a wallet and cell phone after pointing a gun at a couple of people outside an apartment complex. One of the suspects was arrested outside Arby’s on Nicholasville Road. The second suspect, a juvenile, was caught in the Office Max parking lot on Reynolds Road.

Police say they did recover the cell phone from one of the suspects. No word yet on whether the wallet was recovered.

If you have any information on the third robbery suspect, you’re asked to call Lexington Police.

Man claims a masked gunman forced his way into his home at 678 Anniston Drive with five or more people just before 5 a.m. on Sunday.

Authorities say the victim showed up at Samaritan Hospital before 7 a.m. with a non life threatening gunshot wound to the leg. The victim claims there was a struggle before he was shot. When police arrived roughly two hours after the shooting happened, none of the witnesses who were in the home were there.

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There was no call to the authorities when the shot happened, only after the victim arrived at the hospital were police made aware of the situation. The identity of the suspect is unknown. He has been described as a black male about 5’9″ or 5’10”. A call to police did come in around the time the shots were fired by an unknown caller.

Police are calling this a burglary but do not have a lead suspect. Currently they are looking for witnesses.

The search continues for a Lexington murder suspect. A warrant was issued for 21-year-old Jevon Magee on Friday.

Police say Magee gunned down Joseph Parker at the Augusta Arms Apartments on Thursday. Magee’s family says he just got out of prison for a robbery he committed when he was just 15 years old, and he has changed.

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If you know where he may be, please call Lexington Police.

A prominent Johnson County defense attorney and her son have pleaded guilty to selling drugs.

Mary Lou Chandler, and her son Matthew, were indicted for selling prescription drugs to a sheriff’s department informant. After the indictment, Chandler gave up her right to practice law in Kentucky.

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Investigators say the duo sold drugs 3 times over a 6 month period. They say it’s unlikely that Chandler will see jail time. Her plea deal calls for 5 years of probation.

Chandler has been practicing law in the area for at least 35 years.

An armed man walked up to two New York Police Department officers sitting inside a patrol car and opened fire Saturday afternoon, shooting both of them fatally before running into a nearby subway station and committing suicide, police said.

The shooting took place in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Both officers were rushed to Woodhull hospital, where one was pronounced dead, police said. The second officer was later pronounced dead at the hospital. That death was confirmed by two officials, a senior city official and a law enforcement official, who had direct knowledge of the shooting but were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

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Authorities say the suspect fatally shot himself inside the station. His motive wasn’t immediately clear.

A block from the shooting site, a line of about eight police officers stood with a German shepherd blocking the taped-off street. Streets were blocked even to pedestrians for blocks around.

Derrick Thompson, who lives nearby, said the shooting happened across from the Tompkins Houses public housing development.

“I was watching TV, and then I heard the helicopters,” Thompson said. “I walked out, and all of a sudden – this.”

The shooting comes at a tense time. Police in New York are being criticized for their tactics following the chokehold death of Eric Garner, who was stopped by police on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Amateur video captured an officer wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck and wrestling him to the ground. Garner was heard gasping, “I can’t breathe” before he loses consciousness and later dies.

Demonstrators around the country have staged die-ins and other protests since a grand jury decided Dec. 3 not to indict the officer in Garner’s death, a decision that closely followed a Missouri grand jury’s refusal to indict a white officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.

Tony Herbert, community activist who often speaks out on policing issues, went to the area near the shooting Saturday to express his outrage at it and support for police.

“We’ve been denouncing violence in our community,” no matter whom it’s directed at, he said. He’s concerned that some “agitators” might seek to cast the shooting as an outcome of amid the anger over Garner’s death.

“It sullies the opportunity for us to make inroads to build the relationships we need to build to get the trust back,” he said.

“This hurts,” he said, shaking his head.

The president of the police officers union, Patrick Lynch, and Mayor Bill de Blasio have been locked in a public battle over treatment of officers following the grand jury’s decision. Just days ago, Lynch suggested police officers sign a petition that demanded the mayor not attend their funerals should they die on the job.

The last shooting death of an NYPD officer came in December 2011, when 22-year veteran Peter Figoski responded to a report of a break-in at a Brooklyn apartment. He was shot in the face and killed by one of the suspects hiding in a side room when officers arrived. The triggerman, Lamont Pride, was convicted of murder and sentenced in 2013 to 45 years to life in prison.

Support for a dog found on the brink of death has been pouring in and now that dog’s owner is behind bars.

Nearly two weeks after a passerby spotted a couple of dogs chained up outside a home in Morehead, nearly dead from starvation, an arrest has been made in the case.

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Officials with the Rowan County Detention Center say 33 year-old Ricky Gee was taken into custody Saturday morning and charged with cruelty to animals. According to investigators, Gee had two Dobermans chained up outside. By the time animal control showed up to the home, it was too late.
They say one of the Dobermans was dead and the other was barely alive.

The 2 year-old dog named “Lola” was taken in by an animal rescue group in Rowan County. Lola was only weighing 30 pounds when she was found but she’s slowly getting better.

Deputies in Laurel County issued a Golden Alert Saturday evening for a missing man.

Officials say 71-year-old Michael Salisbury has not been seen since Friday afternoon. Salisbury needs medication that he doesn’t have with him, and he needs to be found as soon as possible.

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He’s described as 5’8″ with brown eyes and gray hair. He left his home driving a black Chevy Colorado pick-up truck.

If you see Salisbury, please call the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office.