Pittsburgh PA (15 OCT 2021) Read the full story People gather at vigil for man who died after Bloomfield arrest
Pittsburgh PA (15 OCT 2021) Read the full story Pittsburgh man dies after police use Taser on him during arrest in Bloomfield
Pittsburgh PA (15 OCT 2021) Read the full story Man who was tased, taken into custody by Pittsburgh police, dies at hospital
Neighbor says officers used stun gun at least three times on Jim Rogers, 54.
Jim Rogers, 54-years-old, died Thursday, a day after police used a Taser on him while arresting him for an alleged theft in Bloomfield. According to the police department and the county medical examiner, Mr. Rogers was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m. Thursday at the hospital, about 24 hours after he was arrested.
This all happened in the front yard of a family’s house.
Police said they responded to a theft call in the 5100 block of Harriet Street just after 10 a.m. Wednesday when they encountered Mr. Rogers, who they described was “noncompliant” while officers took him into custody. During the arrest, an officer used a Taser on Mr. Rogers.
“I want to say he was tased at least five times because he kept getting back up, trying to just plead, “I didn’t do anything.'” Asked by Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 if the suspect displayed any aggression toward the officer, Cohn said, “No, the only thing I saw was just him saying, ‘I didn’t do anything.’
“What I can tell you is that he looked very non-aggressive,” Mr. Cohn said of Mr. Rogers mental state during the arrest. “It’s true that he was not complying with the orders to put his hands behind his back, but he wasn’t like fighting back or anything. And the fact that he kept saying ‘I didn’t do anything,’ if I had to guess, he was kind of paralyzed in fear.”
Witness Ryan Cohn
According to Susan Veraldi, police were called after Mr. Rogers rode a bike that was sitting on a neighbor’s lawn, returned it and smoked a cigarette on a porch.
“The bike had been sitting there for sale for a long time, but the sign wasn’t even on there anymore because the kid’s mother said, ‘If anybody wants it, just take it,’” Ms. Veraldi said. “Supposedly, this man was walking around here, and he got on the bike and rode it around.”
Susan Veraldi, Bloomfield PA
Ms. Veraldi lives in the neighborhood where the incident occurred and said a neighbor who filmed the arrest saw officers use a Taser on Mr. Rogers three times.
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