Man injured in East Liberty protests sues Pittsburgh officials, police

A man who claims his face and skull were fractured by an aggressive Pittsburgh police response to a protest in East Liberty is suing city officials in connection with his life-changing injuries.

The civil rights suit was filed in U.S. Western District Court on behalf of a man who says he was watching the June 1 protest unfold and not participating. The man said he was hit in the side of the head with an unknown munition and was carried to a parking garage and later taken to a hospital by protesters.

He suffered facial bone and skull fractures and other trauma and later developed a pseudoaneurysm in his carotid artery. The injuries he suffered could alter the rest of his life, according to the lawsuit.

The man seeks to remain anonymous because of the “concrete risk of injury” he might face if he were named in the suit and fear of retaliation by police and the other officials named in the suit, Pittsburgh lawyers Paul Jubas and Max Petrunya wrote in the 34-page suit. The lawsuit alleges excessive force.

It accuses Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich, Zone 5 Commander Stephen Vinansky, Narcotics and Vice Commander Jason Lando and an unknown tactical commander of knowing police officers “would use overwhelming and excessive force against peaceful protesters with little or no provocation or legal justification.”

It cites the police response to a similar protest May 30 Downtown that also turned violent and resulted in damage to Downtown businesses and burning of a police vehicle.

Forty-six people were arrested May 30 in connection with the protest. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s office dropped charges against 39 of them.

Two days later, dozens were arrested during a protest in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood, which had carried on peacefully for hours before the events turned violent. Zappala later dropped charges against 22 who were arrested in that melee.

Eight people who participated in the May 30 protest were also indicted on federal charges and on Jan. 8, Zappala’s office refiled failure-to-disperse charges against 24 people with participated in either the May 30 or June 1 protests.

“I’m confident that the police would retaliate against him,” Jubas said if his client was named in the suit.

In an interview, Jubas also contrasted the Pittsburgh police response to the protest with the U.S. Capitol police response to the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington. Although people, including three from Western Pennsylvania, have been charged by federal authorities, several videos have surfaced showing how police let people enter the Capitol and occupy the chambers of Congress.

The response to the Pittsburgh protests “stands in stark contrast,” Jubas said, and it “exposes the unfettered undercurrent of white supremacy in our law enforcement.”

In the suit, Jubas also noted rallies against gun control held Jan. 7, 2019, and April 20, 2020, Downtown, where protesters openly carrying guns were allowed to protest without escalation by police.

“In stark contrast to the April 20, 2020, protesters, the June 1, 2020, peaceful protesters were not carrying tactical rifles or any other firearms,” the lawsuit states. “The unarmed and peaceful June 1, 2020, protesters posed less of a threat of ‘substantial harm or serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm’ to the residents of the City of Pittsburgh.”

The suit is seeking unspecified monetary damages for the man’s injuries and the cost of future medical treatment, pain, suffering, embarrassment, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life’s pleasures, along with punitive damages and a declaration that officials violated the man’s civil rights.

It is the second suit filed in federal court stemming from the East Liberty protests. In June 2020, Christopher Juring and seven other protesters filed a similar suit against the city. They were joined by the Abolitionist Law Center in filing that suit.

Peduto spokesman Tim McNulty and Pittsburgh Public Safety officials declined comment because it is a legal matter.