IN MEMORIAM: Frank Ogiri-Little

Frank Ogiri-Little either rode his bike or walked everywhere.

Walking home late one night in… Frank Ogiri-Little either rode his bike or walked everywhere.

Walking home late one night in Squirrel Hill, his life came to an end.

Frank, a 27-year-old Pitt student, was shot on Aug. 4, at 1:08 a.m. on South Negley Avenue in Squirrel Hill. He was the victim of a robbery attempt that ended tragically.

Friends knew Frank for his overwhelming kindness and willingness to always help out. He spent much of his spare time at Free Ride!, a nonprofit community bike shop located in Point Breeze.

“He was interested for a long time, and then started finding more time for it over the last couple of months,” said Jessica McPherson, a Free Ride! coordinator. “He worked on a really nice bike. He put a lot in on it and was riding it around. Then he kept coming back, just to help out with the shop.”

After he became a regular at the bike shop, he started working on bike stands made out of recycled bike parts.

“I think he was working on the stands the night he died,” McPherson recalls. “We’re going to make Frank a little memorial bike stand since he built it.”

After a night of working at Free Ride! he decided to stop in briefly at the Squirrel Hill Cafe. Then, the man who was known to either walk or bike everywhere started walking home.

He had made it about six blocks when he was confronted by four teenagers in a stolen Jeep who demanded that Frank give them his money. When he refused, they demanded his backpack. He refused their demands a second time.

It was at that point that the joy riders told Frank to turn and run. He refused to do this, as well, and paid with his life, suffering multiple gunshot wounds to his neck and body.

More than 100 people turned out for a memorial service in Frank’s honor, held on Aug. 8, near the spot he was killed. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Frank Ogiri-Little’s father, Frank Little, a former Pittsburgh attorney, attended the vigil. Frank’s mother, Titi Ogiri, lives in Nigeria.

Frank’s love for other people became evident with each kind word spoken by his friends.

“He was just the most gentle, kind person,” McPherson said. “I remember one time, I was here fixing my bike. It was late and everyone else had cleaned up … Frank was not going to the same place I was going, but he hung around for another hour, just so he could ride with me. That’s the type of thing he would do.”

Michael Seamans, 22, is a Pitt junior majoring in Urban Studies. He also got to know Frank while working at Free Ride!.

“It was just, all of a sudden, once you got to know him, he was everywhere you went,” Seamans said. “He always had a big smile on his face and was always up for talking. He was really just a big sweetheart.”

“Everywhere you went, you’d see him walking down the street or riding his bike,” Seamans added. “He was just one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever known.”

The Free Ride! bulletin board is adorned with various newspaper articles about Frank. Above them, a handmade sign reads, “We miss you Frank — beloved Free Ride volunteer.”

Four teenagers have since been arrested in connection with the shooting, according to the Post-Gazette. Police said the teens were looking for someone to rob when they found Frank walking home that night.

“He was like a quiet light,” McPherson said.

On the night of Aug. 4, when that light went out, the city of Pittsburgh lost a friend.