A Crafton man pleaded guilty to damaging a police car and assaulting police horses during last year’s protests Downtown following the death in Minnesota of George Floyd.
Raekwon Blankenship, 25, will be sentenced by Allegheny County Judge Thomas E. Flaherty on Aug. 12. He is the first to plead to charges related to the May 30, 2020, protests in Common Pleas Court.
On Wednesday, Blankenship pleaded guilty to two counts each of aggravated assault on police officers, criminal mischief and taunting police animals, as well as one count each of rioting and propelling missiles into an occupied vehicle. Most of the charges are felonies.
Blankenship was seen by Pittsburgh officers holding a stop sign on its pole that day, according to a criminal complaint. He later used it to strike mounted police units during the protests.
In addition, he threw it “javelin style” into the windshield of a police car, impaling the window, police said.
Investigators said Blankenship also jumped onto the hood of a police commander’s SUV after he threw the stop sign.
That same vehicle was set on fire a short time later.
Blankenship, who has a distinctive “HA HA HA” tattoo on the back of his neck, was identified several days later through officers reviewing hours of video received from witnesses and businesses.
