City officials: Protests were ‘hijacked’

Expressing disappointment, anger and frustration, Pittsburgh city and public safety officials said Saturday peaceful protests in Downtown over the death of a black man in the custody of Minnesota police were “hijacked” by people with their own agendas.

“Today we came together as Pittsburghers and supported a First Amendment right to gather and say more must be done,” Mayor Bill Peduto said at a news conference outside city police headquarters on the North Side. “And then it was hijacked. And it was hijacked by a group of individuals who put their own self-interest above the interest of the movement, who took away from those organizers and those who wanted to have a voice about social justice and the demands that are needed in order to be able to see real change happen.”

Pittsburgh was just one city where large-scale protests erupted in recent days following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Protests started Saturday afternoon in Downtown and moved throughout the Central Business District.

Two Pittsburgh police vehicles — one marked and one unmarked — were set ablaze; more than a dozen buildings in Downtown were damaged or looted; the Mario Lemieux statue outside of PPG Paints Arena was tagged with graffiti.

“I’m very disappointed because this was a peaceful protest for something that was very serious, and this does nothing to honor the memory of someone who died,” Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert said. “When you take it from a peaceful protest and you take it to a riot where you’re injuring people, you’re throwing rocks at people, you’re hurting reporters, you’re taking over something that shouldn’t be [done]. This was a peaceful protest, and we saw people leave because of what they saw what other people were doing.”

Several Pittsburgh police officers and bystanders were injured, as well as three journalists who were attacked and injured by protesters, according to Wendell Hissrich, the city’s public safety director. Protesters threw bottles and other objects at police. Police used tear gas and horses to quell the crowd.

“We believe that a lot of these individuals who are creating trouble are not from the city,” Mr. Hissrich said. Many of the people causing damage were white males, police said. Details about the people who were arrested were not immediately available.

State and Allegheny County police, as well as police from other jurisdictions were called in to help. Pittsburgh police also received assistance from the FBI.

“We will look at every video that we have, and we will do everything we can with our technology to find the ones who were responsible for a lot of this,” Chief Schubert said. “I’m just so angry at the fact that some segment hijacked this and then took some of the youth and brought them into the mix.”