It was 12:44 a.m., and Pittsburgh police Lt. Timothy O'Connor and Officers Richard Bowen and Dale Ruble were the only souls on Mount Washington's Pasadena Street, scene of the recent fatal shooting of a 15-year-old girl.

They had backup from what Lt. O'Connor called the "big policeman in the sky" -- a steady downpour that dissuaded would-be troublemakers from venturing outside.

"The rain may be on our side," the lieutenant said. "It clears the streets."

He and the two officers had volunteered for at least four hours of overtime duty from Thursday evening into early yesterday to patrol Mount Washington and other hilltop communities that have seen a surge in gun violence this month.

From June 15 to June 20, Raymond Reese, 15, was shot and killed and two other teenagers were wounded in a drive-by shooting at 78 Pasadena St.; Brandon Alton, 23, was shot and killed at Sonny's Place on Shiloh Street; a man and woman in their 20s were wounded in a shooting in Beltzhoover; and a Knoxville woman was hit in the foot by a stray bullet.

Yesterday's incidents were minor: an Allentown man was assaulted and went to UPMC Mercy with a head wound; a shirtless McKees Rocks man was arrested at Station Square for fighting in the parking lot across from the Sheraton hotel; and an intoxicated Florida woman needed a ride to her friend's home in Mount Washington.

"There were no shootings. That's a good night," said Lt. O'Connor, a 28-year veteran of the force based in the South Side police station.

Last week, Police Chief Nate Harper authorized the increased weekend police presence in those neighborhoods, including Allentown, Beltzhoover and St. Clair Village.

Lt. O'Connor, 51, a former military policeman with a shaved head, was on two patrols last weekend, accompanied by several officers from the Street Response Unit. He was scheduled to head out again early this morning.

The patrols move up and down the hilltop's narrow streets, checking on abandoned properties, parks, playgrounds, bars and other areas that tend to attract groups on summer nights.

A native of Carrick and Allentown (his parents still live in Carrick), Lt. O'Connor knows Pittsburgh's hilltop neighborhoods as well as anyone in the city. And he knows that the recent spate of gun violence can't be attributed to a single cause.

When he joined the police in 1980, crime was lower in those neighborhoods, but they have experienced many of the troubles that afflict Pittsburgh as a whole.

Population continues to decline, leaving behind empty and dilapidated homes, places where drug addicts and other derelicts can gather. Tight municipal budgets have led to cuts in the police force.

Meanwhile, guns are easy to get through straw purchasers who pass them on to felons or teenagers.

"I do not think anything has changed so much as we haven't addressed the problems," Councilman Bruce Kraus, whose district includes some of the hilltop neighborhoods, said of the recent violence.

He described Chief Harper's decision to create special patrols in the area as the "proper response," but he also said he wanted to hear about a long-term, proactive plan.

He noted that the South Side station had 109 officers at the time it was merged with the old West End station in 2003.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl this year opened a new West End station, now called Zone 6. The South Side station, Zone 3, currently has 71 officers, even though it patrols four more communities -- Overbrook, Brookline, Beechview and Banksville -- than it did before the 2003 merger.

South Side officers also find themselves occupied by frequent evening and weekend calls at the Carson Street bars.

That's why dedicated, regular patrols for the hilltop communities are critical, Lt. O'Connor said.

On Thursday evening, he set out in a police cruiser at 11 p.m. with Officer Ruble, a rookie officer who finished the police academy several months ago. The officer was once a candidate for the U.S. Army special forces, but a broken ankle prevented him from getting a spot.

Later, they picked up Officer Bowen, a 13-year veteran of the South Side station.

The lieutenant -- whom the two officers call "L.T." -- headed up 18th Street and crisscrossed the neighborhoods.

Almost no one was out in the heavy rain.

In St. Clair Village, dozens of unused grills sat outside the doorways of public housing units. Youths there have been known to engage in deadly feuds with teens from Beltzhoover.

Lt. O'Connor methodically checked each playground and park in the area: the Bon Air parklet at Calle and Conniston avenues, where vandals several years ago set fire to the equipment; Arlington Playground at Salisbury and Fernleaf streets, also known as "the fort" among police; Olympia Park at Virginia and Olympia streets; and Grandview Park.

The patrol car pulled in front of 78 Pasadena St., where Raymond Reese was killed, and shined a spotlight on the porch. The house, owned by an Allentown woman but unoccupied, had been a known hangout for local teens who regularly broke inside.

On Grandview Avenue, they found a drunken woman holding herself up on a parking meter. Her purse lay in the street.

They put her in the car and took her to her friend's nearby apartment.

"She wanted your digits," Officer Bowen told Officer Ruble when he got back in the car. "I told her to call 911."

They laughed.

The police also stopped at Sonny's Place, the scene of the Alton shooting. Farther down Shiloh Street, a group of men were gathered on a corner.

"You all right, amigos?" Lt. O'Connor asked them. They quickly dispersed.