Pittsburgh, police review board probe 2 use-of-force incidents

Pittsburgh’s Office of Municipal Investigations and the independent Citizen Police Review Board are scrutinizing two unrelated incidents last month in which city police used force to make arrests.

The arrests have elicited concerns among the NAACP’s Pittsburgh branch and other leaders in the city’s Black community, who have a meeting set for Thursday with Pittsburgh public safety officials.

“We are requesting an investigation into these two videos that have captured the attention of multiple civic groups in the City of Pittsburgh — and to get more clarity,” Daylon Davis, president of the local NAACP chapter, told TribLive Tuesday.

Elizabeth Pittinger, the review board’s executive director, said this week she launched investigations into the Dec. 29 arrest of Delvon Pridgen, 34, on the North Side during a domestic dispute and the arrests on Dec. 31 in Carrick of Morgan Daniels and her two adult daughters for public drunkenness.

“The video footage of this incident presents an interaction that appears to be significantly more excessive and aggressive than necessary and possibly violating significant police procedures,” according to a letter about the Pridgen arrest released Monday by the NAACP and the Black Political Empowerment Project.

The letter, dated Jan. 3, was sent to Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt, Acting police Chief Christopher Ragland, City Council members and Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.

The defendants are all Black. In both incidents, which were captured on video, Pittsburgh police used force to subdue Pridgen and Daniels.

Video reviewed by TribLive shows three officers pinning Pridgen to the ground and a fourth one punching him in the side.

In video of the Daniels arrest, police can be seen near Daniels when she tumbles down the home’s front steps. Later in the video, Daniels kicked at officers while they attempted to detain her.

Davis and Tim Stevens, chairman and CEO of the empowerment project, called for the release of police body camera footage in the Pridgen incident if Zappala does not pursue criminal charges against the officers.

“It is imperative that the residents of Pittsburgh have access to the full account of the events that transpired, particularly in light of the troubling footage that has already surfaced from a bystander’s perspective,” according to the letter.

Cara Cruz, a police spokesperson, confirmed Tuesday that the arrests were reviewed by departmental brass.

“Leadership initially reviewed both of these incidents. Then citizen-initiated complaints were filed for both of these incidents,” Cruz said. “The Bureau of Police and the director now wait for the findings to see whether the complaints are sustained. We do not run simultaneous investigations.”

The Office of Municipal Investigations is a city agency that responds to citizen complaints about misconduct by Pittsburgh employees.

The North Side case

Police arrested Pridgen following a domestic dispute around 1:30 a.m. Dec. 29 on Perrysville Avenue in the city’s Perry South neighborhood.

Pridgen’s wife called police after she said Pridgen intentionally drove his car into hers, according to a criminal complaint. Police arrested Pridgen, who they said was “extremely intoxicated,” after a traffic stop elsewhere in Pittsburgh’s North Side.

The complaint said Pridgen didn’t listen to an officer’s order to stay in his car. An officer later “took Delvon to the ground, giving him multiple verbal commands.”

In a one-minute video Pridgen posted to Facebook hours after his arrest, four police officers appeared to be holding down Pridgen.

One police officer appears to punch or strike Pridgen with his fist, according to the video, but he is partially blocked from the camera’s view by other officers.

Pittsburgh police declined a request to review a use of force report in the incident, noting they are “not public documents.”

Pridgen was charged with obstruction, resisting arrest and public drunkenness.

Arrest in Carrick

In the second incident, a Carrick woman and her two daughters were arrested around 4:40 p.m. on Dec. 31 when Pittsburgh police were dispatched to an Edgar Street home for a report of four women fighting in the street, according to a criminal complaint.

After officers arrived, they were confronted by a chaotic scene with two out-of-control dogs and several argumentative people, the complaint said.

A collection of video clips lasting nearly three minutes that the NAACP posted to YouTube shows several police officers scuffling with Morgan Daniels and her two adult daughters.

At one point in the video, a woman tumbles down the front stairs of her home. At another point, a woman is shown lying on the sidewalk, kicking her legs at two police officers.

When Daniels “was kicking her legs and refusing to comply,” Officer Michael Janczewski “punched her in the side of her head one time with a closed fist,” the complaint said.

Officer Brett Maloney was “physically fighting” with one of Daniels’ adult daughters, identified in the complaint as Morgen Dallas.

In a separate letter to Pittsburgh leaders, the NAACP and the Black Political Empowerment Project described their perspective of Morgen Daniels’ arrest, writing that a female officer “forcibly” dragged one of Daniels’ daughters down steps and punched Daniels while she was handcuffed, and that a male officer dragged Daniels several feet along the sidewalk.

“We are certain that such actions by a Pittsburgh police officer absolutely violate the City of Pittsburgh’s use of force policies and procedures,” the letter said.

Daniels and her daughters — Dallas and Brianna Daniels — were charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

The complaint said one of the daughters attacked Officer Becky McKown.

Daniels, 45, was taken to the Allegheny County Jail and released Jan. 1 after posting $5,000 bond, court records show. Dallas, 22, and Brianna Daniels, 21, were taken to the jail and released after each posted $2,000 bond.

None of their attorneys was listed in court records.