Fort Pitt Bridge 'street takeover' stunt leads to another arrest

A social media influencer has become the second person arrested in the aftermath of Friday’s Fort Pitt Bridge street takeover, police said.

State police on Monday charged Graham Carvins Liberal, 24, of Sunrise, Fla. with rioting, recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct and being a pedestrian walking on a highway, court records show.

Liberal was awaiting a preliminary hearing Monday afternoon. Court records do not list his attorney.

At 3:30 a.m. Friday, state police said they received multiple reports that up to 50 cars had stopped traffic on the Fort Pitt Bridge, which takes the Parkway East over the Monongahela River in Downtown Pittsburgh. The vehicles were doing burnouts — when a car stays stationary but spins its wheels, with the friction creating smoke — and drag-racing.

State police said Liberal was visiting the Pittsburgh area last weekend and staged the street takeover on the Pittsburgh bridge to drum up views of his social media pages.

“Videos depict Liberal pulled over inside of the Fort Pitt Tunnel recording the other vehicles passing him in the right lane,” police said in the case’s criminal complaint. “There are also videos of him on the Fort Pitt Bridge, outside of a vehicle, recording these events on a cellphone and narrating.”

Police became aware of street takeovers such as this a few years ago, they said. The incidents began in spring 2021 and utilize several social media car groups to organize, recruit, and plan their events.

Liberal previously had created a stir with a similar incident in Nevada. He was arrested there in July 2022 for attempting to stage a “street takeover” on the Las Vegas Strip, media outlets reported.

Liberal appears to post videos to YouTube as “Mr.Gotdamnit” and has nearly 330,000 subscribers on the video platform. Another YouTuber posted a video Sunday of “Mr. Gotdamnit” driving in Pittsburgh.

A Bridgeville man was the first person charged in connection with the driving stunt, which ended when he crashed his Jeep Grand Cherokee into a state police vehicle and nearly hit a trooper as he sped away, authorities said.

State police on Friday charged Jason Stotlemyer, 31, with aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a vehicle, fleeing or attempting to elude police, simple assault and causing an accident involving damage to an occupied vehicle.

Stotlemyer still was waiting for a preliminary hearing Monday afternoon, according to court records. His attorney was not listed.