New Pittsburgh Courier

Family of Jim Rogers files civil lawsuit against city, police officers

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey (photo courtesy WPXI-TV)

Gainey fires five city officers for their involvement in Rogers’ arrest

 

 A week and change following the City of Pittsburgh’s decision to fire five of its police officers for their role in the arrest and subsequent death of 54-year-old Jim Rogers, Rogers’ family has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the city and the 11 officers involved, the New Pittsburgh Courier has learned.

The lawsuit details the claims, including wrongful death, excessive force, indifference to medical needs, false arrest, and conspiracy to violate Rogers’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process. Specifically against the city, the lawsuit claims negligent hiring, training, discipline and supervision.

The lawsuit wasn’t unexpected—the controversy surrounding the Oct. 13, 2021, arrest of Rogers, an African American, in Bloomfield has been a constant swirl. Police were called to Harriet Street for reports of a man who had taken a bicycle from a neighbor’s porch. The first Pittsburgh Police officer on scene, now identified in the lawsuit as Keith Edmonds, deployed his taser 10 times; at least eight connected with Rogers. Rogers, ailing, was eventually handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle for 17 minutes. Rogers was then taken to UPMC Mercy Hospital; He died the next day.

Cell phone video of the incident was viewed incessantly online and on local television outlets, and the video included onlookers out of view telling police that their actions were unnecessary, even abhorrent.

In the months since Rogers’ death, residents of many ethnicities have come together in protest and in rallies, demanding justice for Jim Rogers. An internal police investigative report found that Rogers had asked for help 13 times while in the back of the police cruiser on that fateful October 2021 afternoon.

‘’I need a hospital, I can’t breathe, get a medic, help me,’” was Rogers’ words, according to the report’s executive summary.

JIM ROGERS

The “brutal attack on Mr. Rogers through the repeated use of a taser on an unarmed, non-violent older gentleman was without cause or justification and undertaken recklessly, wantonly and with gross negligence,” the civil lawsuit, filed on Monday, April 4, read.

The lawsuit also read: “Mr. Rogers did not pose a threat to the safety of Officer Edmonds or any other officer or civilian so as to justify the repeated use of the taser.”

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, upon taking office as the new man in charge on Jan. 3, had been pressed by Rogers supporters to weigh in on his death, and the extent to which city officers were responsible, even though the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Rogers’ death accidental. Mayor Gainey refrained from giving public opinions or statements about the Rogers case until a press conference on March 23, when the mayor and Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt announced the terminations of five city officers. The firings came after an internal disciplinary process was completed for eight of the officers at the scene in Bloomfield who were recommended for discipline by the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. 

“Mr. Rogers deserved to live a life of joy, deserved to live a long one, and he didn’t deserve to lose his life at the hands of police officers,” Mayor Gainey said. “What his life could have been will stay with me as long as I am the mayor of this city. The death of Jim Rogers is a stark reminder about the work we have in front of us to make our city the safest city in America.”

Mayor Gainey added that the decision to fire five officers “sets us on the pathway to continue to improve police-community relations. We need to all work together to honor the life and legacy of Jim Rogers to create a healthier, safer and equitable city for us all.”

 

 

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