Family and friends of a man who died in October after being tased by Pittsburgh police in the city’s Bloomfield neighborhood gathered in front of the City-County Building on Friday to demand accountability in his death.
“We’ve heard almost nothing in the months we’ve been fighting for this,” said Devon Adwoa, a spokeswoman for the family of Jim Rogers, 54, who had been homeless.
Adwoa accused local officials of exchanging blame for the inaction since Rogers’s death.
Speaking on behalf of the family of Jim Rogers, Devon Adwoa demanded charges against all officers involved with his death, along with call logs and body camera footage. pic.twitter.com/A7dYch8Rhs
She said the family wants officials to release the names of every police officer and EMS official who responded to the Oct. 13 call involving Rogers, along with body camera and security footage.
Police said officers were called to Harriet Street that day after a neighbor reported that Rogers had taken a bicycle from a front yard and rode it before returning it. Police said Rogers “became noncompliant” after officers arrived and as he was being taken into custody.
An officer deployed his taser multiple times, and Rogers was eventually handcuffed. Investigators said he became unresponsive while being taken to the hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition and died the next day.
Four Pittsburgh police officers and one supervisor remain on leave stemming from the incident. Another supervisor retired this week.
Adwoa said the family is calling for the officers involved to be criminally charged.
“We know, at the end of the day, District Attorney Stephen Zappala has the power to charge these officers,” Adwoa said. “That’s one of our concrete demands.”
Mike Manko, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s office, said Friday that his office has been in communication with Rogers’ mother multiple times during the investigation.
Earlier in the week, Zappala said in a statement that he could not reach a decision on potential criminal charges until he received all of the relevant information from the city, county and medical examiner’s office, which has still not ruled on cause and manner of death.
Zappala has previously expressed his concern about the length of time the criminal investigation has taken.
Adwoa said that, while she believed Zappala could do more, she also felt Mayor Bill Peduto needed to take action. She accused the pair of “playing the blame game.”
Peduto said Wednesday that he expected any potential disciplinary action taken against Pittsburgh police officers involved in Rogers’ arrest would happen before he leaves office early next year.
“We’ve heard nothing, or very little, from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police,” Adwoa said.
While Adwoa acknowledged that Peduto hoped to take action before leaving office, she said nothing has happened yet, and the issue could easily be passed on to Mayor-elect Ed Gainey. As Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor, Gainey should be taking more interest in the case, Adwoa said.
“Currently, he’s been silent on the Jim Rogers case,” she said.
At a recent question-and-answer session with the community hosted by the Downtown Community Development Corp., Gainey declined to answer questions about Rogers, saying he hadn’t been briefed on the situation.
While Adwoa addressed members of the media, a group of about 20 people supporting the Rogers family held signs on the steps of Downtown’s City-County Building.
