This story was updated at 3:00 a.m. May 31.
A planned demonstration against police brutality following the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who died in police custody, took a bad turn Saturday, about two hours into the march. By late evening, at least a dozen buildings in Downtown Pittsburgh were damaged or looted, police said. Two Pittsburgh police cruisers were also set afire. The total amount of damage was unknown.
Four Pittsburgh police officers were hospitalized and later released and several others were injured, but did not require hospitalization. Several people in the crowd were injured, including at least three journalists who were attacked by protesters. None of the injuries were serious, according to police.
The police used gas against protesters during the demonstration.
“We’ve had several reporters, media personnel, injured as well as some pedestrians we thought were just innocent bystanders,” Wendell Hissrich, Pittsburgh’s public safety director, said at a press briefing outside city police headquarters on the North Side. “There’s extensive damage Downtown, there have been windows broken out, there has been looting.”
The Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety set an 8:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the city overnight Saturday and Sunday to attempt to quell the protests. The department announced early Sunday morning that 43 adults and one juvenile were arrested during Saturday’s riots and looting.
Pittsburgh public safety officials requested officers from multiple local jurisdictions to help, including Pennsylvania State Police and Allegheny County Police.
The protest, which grew to at least 1,000, began at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Sixth Street and Liberty Avenue, eventually moving to gathering points along Centre Avenue and nearby Washington Place, where the two police vehicles were set ablaze.
It was there that the protest turned violent. Protesters stopped alongside The Church of Epiphany, where Rev. Joe Freedy and Rev. Chris Donley, who jointly run the merged parishes now known as Divine Mercy Parish, were watching from the steps of their rectory.
“We’re just happy to be present to allow the Lord to bless their efforts. Anytime there is injustice done we’re happy to bless the people pushing for justice,” Father Donley said. “It just feels like there is so much pain for everyone today. They’re so outraged and upset.”
“Everyone wants some sign or message to show we’re sick of it,” said Kirsten Kahlyr, 26, a white resident of Duquesne, as she stood amid the crowd along Washington Place.
From near PPG Paints Arena, protesters moved back Downtown, and eventually began spreading around Wood Street, Liberty Avenue and Smithfield Street. They used fences, street signs and large pots to form a barricade. On Liberty Avenue, a man stood at the makeshift gate and opened it up so civilian vehicles could drive through.
A long standoff lasted at Smithfield and Sixth streets before moving down to Wood Street. They chanted “Hands up, don’t shoot!” Someone with a megaphone repeated a phone number protesters could call to bail them out if they got arrested.
Many storefronts along Wood Street were broken into or vandalized. People jumped through broken windows into the Sprint store in Market Square and the T Mobile store along Liberty Avenue. One woman walked down the street handing out phone cases to anyone who asked.
CURFEW: Effective at 8:30 P.M. tonight, there is a citywide curfew in effect for #Pittsburgh.@PghPublicSafety will enforce the City order from 8:30 P.M. to 6:00 A.M.
— City of Pittsburgh (@CityPGH) May 30, 2020
When the 8:30 curfew approached, police began moving closer to the protesters. More tear gas was used, and the group — down to less than 100 — moved to Liberty Avenue and then onto Fort Duquesne Boulevard along the Allegheny River.
Once police presence increased, the group moved down the street and back towards downtown.
“This is what happens,” one young man said as he walked by. “I know so many of us have been arrested for something we didn’t do.”
Earlier in the day, as the protest grew, there were traffic shutdowns as well as public transit suspensions.
Marchers coming down Smithfield from opposite direction pic.twitter.com/l2LWo4GeFq
— Ashley Murray (@Ashley__Murray) May 30, 2020
The protesters — most masked because of the COVID-19 precautions — shouted “I can’t breathe” and “This is for George” as they marched.
At around 6 p.m., all traffic on the Veterans Bridge came to a complete standstill and protesters headed back Downtown after moving toward Route 28.
All bus service throughout the city was stopped as of 5:45 p.m. due to standstill traffic in the Hill District and Oakland neighborhoods. Port Authority suspended all bus and light-rail service Saturday evening. The authority said it expected transportation to resume Sunday morning.
“We believe that a lot of these individuals who are creating trouble are not from the city,” Mr. Hissrich said. “However, we have to take a strong response to ensure that the residents and visitors of the city remain safe over the next few days.”
Mayor Bill Peduto at a press briefing about 7:30 p.m. in front of Pittsburgh police headquarters on the North Side said it was an“interesting” day for the city.
“Today we came together as Pittsburghers and supported a First Amendment right to gather and say more must be done,” Mr. Peduto said. “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 police Chief Scott Schubert said he was “very disappointed” the peaceful protest turned into a situation that “does nothing to honor the memory of someone who died.”
Later on Saturday, Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik sent out an “urgent call for calm” as protests devolved into violence, asking “all believers to pray and act for peace, unity and that perfect balance of justice and mercy that is the hallmark of God’s work in our world.”
Saturday marked the first large-scale public protest in Pittsburgh in response to Mr. Floyd’s death.
Saturday’s protest was the largest in the Pittsburgh region since the protests over the police killing of 18-year-old Antwon Rose II in East Pittsburgh in June 2018. Those protests were almost entirely peaceful and led to only a few arrests over the course of several nights.
A smaller protest took place earlier Saturday in Sewickley.
More than 300 people marched from the center of Sewickley, at the intersection of Broad and Beaver streets, across the Sewickley Bridge and back over nearly two hours, ending at about 2 p.m.
The mixed group of white and black residents, escorted by Sewickley Police and attended by Sewickley Mayor Brian Jeffe, wanted to march as “an emotional response to the catastrophe in Minneapolis,” said Stratton Nash, 62, a black resident of Sewickley.
Gregory Patrick, a black resident of nearby Edgeworth, said “one of the hopeful things about [the march] was that it was so diverse, ethnically, racially and by age, and it was peaceful.”
Many who turned out for that protest said they were headed into Downtown Pittsburgh later for the larger demonstration there.
First Published: May 30, 2020, 7:43 p.m.
Updated: May 31, 2020, 7:03 a.m.
