PITTSBURGH — There’s a video circulating on social media following Tuesday’s fight that is causing concern.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE >> Police officer hurt, 2 juveniles tased during fight in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood
“That was quite an elevated situation and out-of-control situation,” said Beth Pittinger, head of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board.
The video shows a crowd of students waiting for the bus and it quickly turns violent as two boys rush each other and start punching and body slamming.
“This isn’t a new situation down there — for decades it’s been a problem,” Pittinger said.
In order to break up the fight, the video shows two officers shock those two boys with Tasers, ultimately taking them into custody and filing charges. It’s a move that Pittinger believed was justified, as we showed her the video for the first time.
“It was an active scene with two officers on the scene initially and their obligation was to break this up and stop anyone else from being injured. They have the right to use a responsible amount of force and it appears that’s what they did,” Pittinger said.
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But Pittinger believes there’s a bigger issue, one police tried addressing on Wednesday with a heavier presence on Murray Avenue.
“I know many say that’s just giving a negative image to the kids, but look what happened — is our first duty to keep them safe? Yea,” Pittinger said.
Pittinger told Channel 11 it shouldn’t just be police: community partners should step up to help control these crowds of kids too. It was something members of the county’s Reach Program did as they helped monitor the situation.
“The behavior on part of our students is something we should all be thinking about and be concerned on how we can intervene, not to accommodate but to intervene to de-escalate and get rid of the violence,” Pittinger said.
Pittsburgh Police are asking anyone with more video of the incident to send it to Zone 4 detectives. As for the Taser use, the department is reviewing the incident.
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