The NAACP is calling for a federal investigation into the 2021 death of an unarmed Black man following an encounter with a Pittsburgh police officer who repeatedly shocked him with a Taser.
The national civil rights organization told the U.S. Department of Justice in a letter that a “thorough investigation” of the death of Jim Rogers is necessary to provide justice and accountability in the case.
“This incident is deeply troubling,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote in a letter dated Tuesday to Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights in Washington, D.C. “Without federal intervention, the police officers will not be held accountable for their actions.”
The Justice Department on Wednesday confirmed receipt of the letter but declined further comment.
Rogers, a 54-year-old homeless man, died Oct. 14, 2021, a day after tussling with Keith Edmonds, a Pittsburgh police officer.
Edmonds, who is also Black, was responding to a report of a stolen bike in Bloomfield when he ran into Rogers. The encounter quickly turned violent, with Edmonds shocking Rogers over and over when Rogers didn’t obey all his commands.
After police took Rogers into custody, officers ignored his pleas for medical help, according to an internal police report on the incident. The city inquiry criticized how officers and police supervisors handled the situation, determining that Rogers did not pose a threat and was subjected to conflicting commands.
“Mr. Rogers repeatedly told the police that he could not breathe,” Johnson wrote. “He said that he needed some air. While Mr. Rogers struggled to breathe and yelled for help several times, the police chatted to each other. The police told him to relax.”
The city settled a lawsuit with Rogers’ family for $8 million. Edmonds was fired but reinstated by an arbitrator last week with back pay.
“Officer Edmonds himself testified that he violated the policies of the City of Pittsburgh, however this award adopts a new standard that says that even an admission of guilt by the officer isn’t enough to warrant disciplinary action,” the mayor’s office said in a statement.
Maria Montano, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Gainey, told TribLive the city plans to appeal the arbitrator’s decision.
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“Edmonds’ reinstatement will not be implemented until the city’s appeals on his reinstatement have been exhausted,” she said.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has said Edmonds was “wrong” but didn’t commit homicide when he repeatedly shocked Rogers.
Edmonds delivered at least 10 electrical bursts on Rogers within three minutes and 15 seconds, according to a 15-page executive summary of an internal Pittsburgh police critical review board investigation.
The NAACP took up the issue in Washington, D.C., at the urging of its Pittsburgh chapter, said Daylon Davis, the chapter’s president.
Davis said he provided the NAACP with a video of Rogers’ arrest, which had been released publicly Jan. 29 by attorney Todd Hollis, who represented Rogers’ family in the civil suit.
“Just from them watching that video, they had very grave concerns,” Davis told TribLive on Wednesday. “This isn’t about Keith Edmonds, the African-American. This is about Keith Edmonds, the police officer. … This was an abuse of power. This was an abuse of basic humanity.”
Davis also said Edmonds’ reinstatement “sets a dangerous precedent.”
“Officer Keith Edmonds acknowledged he violated city policy,” Davis said. “If you have an admission of guilt, I’m sorry, I don’t think you should get your job back — and neither does the [NAACP] national office.”
Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh who also served as a deputy assistant attorney general, said the NAACP request is uncommon.
Any potential federal charges, he said, would fall under civil rights violations, including use of unreasonable force, like in the Rodney King case in California.
King, a Black man, was mercilessly beaten in 1991 by a group of Los Angeles police officers, whose acquittal sparked riots in the city. Litman worked on the King case while he was with the Justice Department.
The standard, Litman said, is that “it’s so grievous the cop had to know it was unreasonable. It’s knowing use of unreasonable force.”
Any charges would likely be handled through a joint prosecution between the U.S. Attorney’s office in Pittsburgh and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Litman said.
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A charging decision, he said, will likely take a while.
“Nobody should expect it to be soon,” Litman said.
Of the nine officers on scene that the internal police bureau report blamed for not properly performing their jobs, two retired, four were fired but reinstated, including Edmonds, and three others were suspended, according to the police union president. One of the suspensions remains in arbitration.
Robert Swartzwelder, the union leader, previously called the executive summary of the Critical Incident Review Board “a hit piece.”
Staff writer Paula Reed Ward contributed to this report.