Man pleads to federal charges stemming from 2020 Pittsburgh riot

A man charged with setting fire to a Pittsburgh police car and assaulting a television camera operator during last year’s protests and riot over the death of George Floyd pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday.

Christopher West, 36, who has previous addresses in Brookline and Mount Oliver, will be sentenced for conspiracy and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder by U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan on Oct. 5.

West will remain in custody at the Allegheny County Jail until then.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney, West was at the May 30 protests Downtown when the crowd became agitated.

Brian Bartels, of Shaler, began vandalizing a police vehicle and West and another man, Da’Jon Lengyel, joined him, Sweeney said.

Video shows West climbing on the car, jumping on its roof and then trying to kick out a window.

After some time, Sweeney said, West got the hood of the vehicle open, and two other, unidentified men then tried to set it on fire.

When the engine compartment didn’t light, the prosecutor continued, West and Lengyel placed crumpled paper and cardboard in the passenger compartment, which was then lit by one of the unknown men.

Afterward, Sweeney said, a camera operator from KDKA who had captured video of the incident was attacked by the crowd.

West punched the man in the face and knocked his camera to the ground before others continued the assault, Sweeney said.

However, at the conclusion of Sweeney’s summary of the case, West objected to the allegations involving the camera operator.

“I agree with everything up until that point,” West said.

“He believes the facts up to that point are sufficient,” said defense attorney Frank Walker III.

Sweeney agreed, noting that the elements of the two felony counts to which West pleaded did not require the information on the alleged assault. The parties agreed that Ranjan would not need to consider them.

West faces separate charges in Allegheny County Court stemming from the assault on the camera operator, including criminal mischief; riot; recklessly endangering another person and robbery.

He is scheduled for a nonjury trial on those charges before Judge David R. Cashman on Aug. 9.

Lengyel is scheduled to plead guilty in federal court on June 1.

Bartels pleaded guilty in September and was sentenced to one day in custody to be followed by six months in a halfway house.