Family of man killed by Port Authority police in Wilkinsburg sues over excessive force claim

The family of a man killed by Port Authority police in 2016 after he stabbed a police dog to death says in a lawsuit that the shooting was unnecessary.

In a suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, relatives of Bruce Kelley Jr. are asking that officers and the county be held liable for excessive force.

Police shot Kelley, of Washington, Pa., after a confrontation in Wilkinsburg on Jan. 31, 2016.

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s office later ruled that Officer Dominic Rivotti and Sgt. Brian O’Malley were justified in shooting Kelley.

But his mother, Johnnie Mae Kelley, and his sister, Calisia Kelley, said in the suit that the officers didn’t have to shoot him.

“Defendants O’Malley and Rivotti used unreasonable, excessive, deadly force by shooting Kelley Jr. in the back repeatedly and killing him,” attorney Noah Geary said in the complaint.

The incident began about 3 p.m., when Port Authority officers on patrol along the East Busway confronted Kelley, 37. They said he and his father, Bruce Kelley Sr., were drinking from open containers near a gazebo in a park.

Police said Kelley resisted them punched a female officer in the face, then pulled a knife and ran away. According to the complaint, Kelley did not punch the officer.

More officers responded and began following Kelley. According to the district attorney’s report, they used pepper spray, Tasers and a baton to try to subdue him as he made his way through backyards.

Sgt. O’Malley and his dog, Aren,

fired twice. Kelley was hit seven times and died.

“Quite simply, non-lethal options had been deployed at length and to no avail,” District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said when the report came out.

But Mr. Geary and Kelley’s family said Kelley never threatened anyone with the knife. They also said when the dog attacked, it bit the wrong arm. Kelley was holding the knife in his right hand, but the dog bit the other arm.

“Had the dog been properly trained, it would have bit Kelley’s right arm,” the lawsuit says. “In response, Kelley Jr. slashed at the dog to defendhimself from the dog.”

Mr. Geary said the police were not justified in using lethal force. “Instead of simply de-escalating the interaction, the defendants and their fellow officers escalated the situation,” he said. “Furthermore, the K-9 dog is dead not because of Kelley Jr., but becausethe defendants mishandledthe situation badly.”

The Port Authority declined comment, saying it had not yet been served with thesuit. In addition to the two officers who shot Kelley, the suit names various unidentified officers, the Port Authority and its police chief, MatthewPorter, and the county.