Police charge Pittsburgh man with assault, riot after protest at Mayor Peduto's house

A protester arrested Wednesday night after a protest outside Mayor Bill Peduto’s Point Breeze home is charged with aggravated assault and riot after police allege he pushed his bicycle against and struggled with officers.

The arresting officer wrote in the complaint that his body-worn camera was knocked off while he took Ian Frazier, 26, of Pittsburgh, into custody.

Frazier is also charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and failure to disperse.

The melee happened around 10:30 p.m. near Mellon Park, as the hourslong protest ended in pepper spray and chaos as protesters left the street outside the mayor’s home.

A group of about 100 protesters had originally marched from the park to Peduto’s Hastings Street home around 8 p.m. to confront the mayor about perceived inaction and lies, particularly in regard to tense moments with police during protests over the past months.

Police began dispersing protesters about 10:15 p.m., with an officer using a long-range acoustic device to give the order: “I am Officer Spinneweber of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. I hereby declare this to be an unlawful assembly. I order all those assembled at (Peduto’s address) to disperse. You must leave the immediate vicinity.”

At least one person arrested after police push the demonstrators into Mellon Park on Aug. 19, 2020. @TribLIVE pic.twitter.com/nr4woBXtzy

— Nate Smallwood (@nsmallwoodphoto) August 20, 2020

The criminal complaint states dispersal orders were given at 10:15, 10:17, 10:18, 10:19, 10:20 and 10:21 p.m.

In at least the first three instances, the scripted order indicated the group had two minutes to disperse.

The complaint also said protesters were told to “disperse down Hastings Street toward Reynolds Street.” The order given at the scene also included “back toward Mellon Park.”

Police in riot gear continued to hold their line and move with protesters back toward the park, where they announced that the park had closed at 9 p.m.

The ordinance dictating park hours reads in part: “Park hours are 6 a.m. until sunset for unlighted areas and 11 p.m. for lighted areas.”

The criminal complaint did not note whether the park was considered closed.

The complaint alleges protesters stopped at the intersection of Elysian Street and Fifth Avenue and “began forming a line, stopped moving and began to demonstrate that they were no longer obeying dispersal orders.” Police wrote that it is a heavily trafficked intersection used by medics, fire crews and police, so officers ordered demonstrators off of the street.

“Protesters moved out of the street, however, remained on the edge of the sidewalk closest to the street,” police wrote. “Due to officers now being in the middle of the road, officers ordered the protesters away from the street to allow officers out of the roadway and from traffic.”

Police wrote that protesters began “pushing against officers on the line,” and other officers monitoring various livestreams of the protest alleged they saw someone using a laser pointer, a tactic they said “has been utilized recently across the nation in an attempt to damage officers’ vision.”

The complaint alleges that a protester began charging the officer who was taking Frazier into custody, and “it appears that the female was attempting to prevent his arrest.” An officer then sprayed the protester “with two short bursts” of OC spray.

Police wrote that a man later identified as Frazier was pushing his bike against the officers, striking one of them in the hip. As they tried to take him into custody, the small incline from the sidewalk into the park caused them to fall, and Frazier allegedly “grabbed his bike and attempted to flee back into the crowd.”

He was taken into custody, police wrote, but the officer’s body camera was knocked off “due to the struggle with Frazier.”

Frazier was released on his own recognizance Thursday morning.

Courts records did not list a defense attorney for Frazier as of Thursday afternoon, and he could not be reached for comment.

Cara Cruz, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said the department and the mayor’s office are “reviewing actions by police and protesters” in the time right after dispersal orders were given.

Pittsburgh Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, who was present at the portion of the protest outside Peduto’s home, told those who came out she was there to listen to their concerns.

Councilwoman Erika Strasburger addresses protesters. She gets some applause. pic.twitter.com/OqsVumQ2FQ

— Megan Guza (@meganguzaTrib) August 20, 2020

“My door’s open, I’m willing to work with them to make change,” Strassburger said Thursday.

She doesn’t condone the actions of police at Mellon Park.

“The protesters were maybe boisterous. They were maybe loud. There might have been a couple conflicts with police,” Strassburger said. “I don’t think that justifies the use of force I saw that affected many more people in the crowd.”

At that point in the evening, the protesters were off a public street and “they would have eventually said their goodbyes and gone home,” she said.

Prior to the protests at Peduto’s home, city council was already planning a meeting with public safety leaders to go over what happened during Saturday’s pop-up arrest in Oakland.

That meeting hasn’t happened yet, Strassburger said.

She and other council members will be reviewing police policies and new legislation will be introduced to govern how the police respond to protests and other situations, Strassburger said.

Police need to be able to de-escalate situations before they devolve in the manner that’s happened several times at protests since May 25, she said.

She said she’s reviewing best practices from around the world in how to respond to these situations.

“I think there’s a real opportunity for police to be seen as guardians of public safety,” she said.

Protesters might not like being given commands to not block an intersection, but if it were done in a non-threatening way by an unarmed person, the reaction might be different, she said.

She’d like to explore the issue further with police leadership.

“I have an open mind, I’m ready for them to convince them otherwise,” Strassburger said. “I’m ready to engage on this and figure out what absolutely needs to change.”

This past weekend marked the 11th consecutive week of Civil Saturday protests organized by Black, Young, & Educated in response to police brutality in Pittsburgh and across the nation. This protest took place almost exclusively within the district I represent. 1/9

— Erika Strassburger (@erikastrassbrgr) August 18, 2020