Jim Rogers' family, public attend Homewood video screening of man's fatal encounter with Pittsburgh police

Myrtle and Billy Joe Jordan weren’t ready Wednesday to watch their nephew die.

The Point Breeze couple last heard from Jim Rogers, who vacationed with them as a boy, a few days before his fatal encounter with Pittsburgh police on Bloomfield’s Harriet Street on Oct. 13, 2021. Rogers, who struggled with drug abuse, recently had left a six-month rehab program early and was staying with a friend in the Hill District.

On Wednesday, the Jordans joined a crowd of about 30 people in a Homewood gymnasium to watch footage of Pittsburgh police Officer Keith Edmonds deploying his Taser against Rogers — and the tragedy that followed.

Police records indicate Edmonds used his Taser at least 10 times in three minutes and 15 seconds.

The Jordans then watched a disoriented, unattended Rogers hyperventilating in the back seat of a Pittsburgh police cruiser, eventually blacking out. Rogers struggled to catch his breath in the car for 17 minutes before police left for a hospital.

They saw the officers take 38 minutes to drive to UPMC Mercy hospital, bypassing three closer hospitals.

Moments into the footage, Myrtle Jordan put her hands to her face and wept. She wept for most of the 52 minutes the video played.

“I can’t express my feelings,” said Myrtle, 80, whose sister, Rosemary, is Rogers’ mother. “It was uncalled for, him being tased like that.”

Rogers, 54, who police said was homeless, died the day after being shocked by Edmonds. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said that a lack of oxygen to the brain caused his death, which they ruled accidental.

Attorney Todd J. Hollis, who represented Rogers’ family in a wrongful death lawsuit, released footage online Monday of Rogers’ last conscious moments. U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Reed Eddy gave Hollis permission to share the video — a compilation of body-camera, dashboard camera and neighbor-shot footage.

“I want transparency — I am not here to place blame or point fingers,” Hollis told the crowd. “But a man died over a bicycle, over a bicycle that was being given away.

“We’re here because, but for this video, there wouldn’t be this conversation,” he added.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. convened a grand jury investigation into Rogers’ death, but no criminal charges were filed against the officers. The grand jury hearing the case concluded its term in October 2022.

Rogers’ family settled its civil suit with Pittsburgh last April for $8 million — the highest payout in city history on a civil rights complaint.

Olga George, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Gainey, said that, since the Rogers incident, Pittsburgh police have made “several policy and procedural improvements,” including dispatching EMS every time a Taser is deployed, reviewing all body-worn cameras after every use of force, and assigning officers to monitor prisoners during transfer to a hospital.

“The bureau and its officers are fully committed to ensuring that all individuals in Pittsburgh police custody are afforded the highest standard of care,” George said in a prepared statement.

Following Rogers’ death, police leadership recommended discipline against several police officers.

Five of those officers have been reinstated and were given “a reduced penalty,” including some with back pay, according to Robert Swartzwelder, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1, which represents Pittsburgh police.

Edmonds was fired but has appealed the decision.

Swartzwelder this week blasted Hollis’ move to release the Rogers video.

“To release information, without context, it damages our officers’ reputations and their safety,” Swartzwelder told TribLive. “This was done intentionally to embarrass the police officers, to put pressure on the arbitration process. … They did it intentionally and with malice.”

At Wednesday’s public screening at the Kelly Street headquarters of the Community Empowerment Association nonprofit, which is based inside the former Holy Rosary school, Hollis declined to address the video’s impact on the officers’ hearings.

“It’s not appropriate for me to comment on that,” he said.

Billy Joe Jordan, though, didn’t hesitate to offer his opinion on the possibility of criminal charges.

“I’m here to see police indicted — that was wrong,” he said. “I’m 84. I don’t need no money. I want justice for my nephew.”

Rogers’ uncle, Richard Banner, told TribLive what he saw during the public screening “shocking.”

“I knew the outcome already — we all did — but I needed to watch that, to see how he was treated,” said Banner, 67, of Duquesne, as his eyes filled with tears after the screening.

“I’ve seen more compassion from animals. And all of this was over a misunderstanding with a bike.”