Crafton man gets prison time for role in Downtown Pittsburgh riot

Raekwon Blankenship can be seen on video stomping on a police vehicle, wielding a construction sign at a police horse’s throat and then throwing the same sign like a javelin through the windshield of another police car.

At his sentencing in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on Thursday, Blankenship apologized for his actions in a May 2020 Downtown Pittsburgh riot. His attorney said that he felt like his client didn’t intend that day to participate, saying instead he was “wrapped up in the emotion of the protest.”

Judge Thomas E. Flaherty didn’t buy it.

“I find that very suspect. I don’t think that’s credible from what I read in the pre-sentence report,” the judge said. “What you’ve been charged with is at an extreme on the spectrum of a peaceful protest.”

The judge ordered Blankenship to serve 2-1/2 to five years in state prison. He has been in custody since June 2020 and will get credit for all the time he has served.

Blankenship, 25, of Crafton pleaded guilty on May 12 to two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of criminal mischief, one count of riot, two counts of taunting police animals and one count of propulsion of missiles stemming from the May 30, 2020 protest Downtown over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Assistant District Attorney Nichole Ehrheart asked the judge for a standard-range sentence, which called for 3-/12 years in prison.

“This was a riot,” she said. “They were throwing rocks, pieces of concrete and full bottles of soda at the police officers.”

Ehrheart said that Blankenship poked at the police horses, which could have caused the officers riding them to be thrown off and injured. She noted, too, the dangerousness of throwing a street sign into the windshield of a moving car.

“This wasn’t a case of an innocent passerby. He deliberately moved from place to place,” she said.

The police commander’s SUV that Blankenship stomped on was set on fire a short time later.

But defense attorney Randall McKinney told Flaherty that his client’s intention that day was to participate in a peaceful protest.

“Mr. Blankenship didn’t wake up in the morning in question with wickedness in his heart,” McKinney said.

Blankenship showed remorse in court.

“I want to take full responsibility,” he said “I know what I did was wrong.”

Blankenship was charged separately for his actions in federal court and pleaded guilty there to obstruction on June 15. He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab on Nov. 4.