Frank Christopher and his partner were "just trying to make an honest buck" when they were shot delivering a bogus pizza order on the North Side, friends and co-workers said Thursday.
"They were hard workers and good, giving people," Jack Christopher, 49, said of his younger brother and his brother's companion, Carol "Cookie" Terle. "Now someone takes it all away from Frankie's family and from Cookie."
Frank Christopher, 42, of the East Allegheny section of the North Side, died in his van outside the emergency room of Allegheny General Hospital about 11 p.m., Wednesday. Terle, 41, who drove Christopher to the hospital, remained in critical condition yesterday with a bullet wound in his jaw, police said.
No arrests had been made as of last night. Police said the shooting was the most serious of several recent North Side robberies of pizza delivery drivers.
Police said Christopher and Terle, while working for Lillen's Pizza and Restaurant on East Ohio Street, were sent to what turned out to be a vacant home in the 500 block of Armandale Street about 10:45 p.m. to deliver a large pepperoni pizza and two dozen chicken wings.
Christopher got out of his van and knocked on the door; there was no answer. When he got back in the van, he called the pizza shop for instructions.
As he was completing the call, at least one person approached the van, stuck a gun in the passenger window and demanded money, Pittsburgh police Lt. Kevin Kraus said.
"(Christopher) tried to explain that he didn't have any money," Kraus said.
The gunman fired, hitting Christopher in the chest and Terle, who was driving, in the jaw. Terle drove away. Another man, whom Jack Christopher described as a homeless man the couple were caring for, was in the back seat of the van and was not injured.
It is unclear if anyone else was with the gunman, Kraus said.
"What's crazy is we got the same order for the same address the night before," said Carl Lamb, 28, a worker at Pickles Pizza and Sandwich Emporium on East Ohio Street, where the couple also worked. "Our drivers left when they didn't get an answer. Somehow they were lucky because it looks like they were getting set up, too."
Mohammad Munir, the owner of Lillen's, who took the order, said he had reservations because the caller sounded confused and didn't know how to spell the name of the street for the delivery.
"I heard him tell someone to look outside at the sign," Munir said. "Lately, we've had some bad orders, kids making orders and making deliveries with people refusing to pay."
But Munir said he never expected violence and said he kept saying "no way, no way," when police called to tell him about the shooting.
"I wish there was something I could do to bring him back," Munir said.
Christopher and Terle lived together for several years, Jack Christopher said. They often took in homeless people, and also did maintenance work on houses.
"They were just trying to make an honest buck," he said. "They weren't rich. They earned every dollar they had. And when they had extra, they shared."
"They are such nice people, always feeding the homeless, always giving them rides, always giving them a place to stay," Munir said.
Kraus said caller ID is a must-have for pizzerias. They should also try to verify orders before delivering, he said.
"We've had a series of these, mostly on the upper North Side, not in the area of the shooting," said Kraus, who said there have been at least 10 robberies of pizza delivery drivers in the past month on the North Side,
Kraus added that detectives do not know if the same people were responsible for all the holdups.
"The operators of these shops need to take precautions and encourage their drivers to drive away if the circumstances seem questionable."
Munir said he plans to limit deliveries in the future.
