When others told him to not get involved, Justin Gavasto didn’t listen.
The West View resident was on his way home on April 7 when he drove up on a police officer wrestling with another man on Center Avenue at Columbia Avenue.
Others had stopped, but weren’t doing anything. Gavasto said one man told him it wasn’t his business.
“It is my business,” he said. “I live in that neighborhood. It very much makes it my business.”
Gavasto offered to help the officer, Ross Det. Michael Orsino. Orsino told him to get on the radio in his car and call for backup.
“I heard sirens pretty much immediately,” Gavasto said. “There was so many police there so fast.”
Gavasto, 50, was recognized for his actions at the Ross commissioners meeting Monday, receiving a departmental commendation from Ross police Chief Cristyn Zett.
A second man, Jonathan Ponce, 33, of Ross, received a chief’s letter of recognition for also coming to Orsino’s aid that day.
“For you to step in and to help in this situation is incredible,” Commissioner Dan DeMarco said. “It’s brave.”
At the commissioners meeting, Orsino said he was driving on Center Avenue that morning when he saw a man, later identified as 23-year-old Joshua Tyler Pratt, assaulting another man near Columbia Avenue.
“The victim had been knocked to the ground and the suspect was standing over top punching him,” Orsino said. “The male who was being assaulted is a known special-needs adult who frequents the area looking for scrap metal.”
Orsino said the victim had approached Pratt and asked if he had any metal for him to scrap. Pratt, without provocation, began punching the man, knocking him to the ground.
After Orsino identified himself as a police officer, he said, Pratt began to scream at him and started to walk away. Orsino tried to apprehend Pratt, who wasn’t obeying his commands.
“The suspect was screaming unintelligible words in my face and was extremely agitated,” Orsino said.
Orsino said he took Pratt down to the pavement to restrain him, during which he dropped his portable radio, preventing him from updating Allegheny County 911 about his status and location.
That was when Gavasto, an electrician, and Ponce, a former police officer, approached and asked Orsino if he needed help. Orsino said he asked Gavasto to use the radio in his car to alert 911 of his location and to verify they were sending backup units.
Gavasto said it took him a minute to find the radio within Orsino’s vehicle, an unmarked police car where the radio is tucked inside the center console. He used the radio to identify himself as a civilian and state that an officer was wrestling with a suspect; he gave the location, said that backup was needed, and repeated the information for clarity.
“I didn’t know who was listening, of course someone would be,” he said. “Backup responded immediately.”
Zett said Gavasto could be a dispatcher. “You sounded excellent on the radio,” she said.
Ponce said he tended to the victim as Orsino had Pratt under control.
“Due to the actions of both men, including Mr. Gavasto communicating to dispatch, myself and the West View police officer were able to place the suspect under arrest without anyone suffering any serious injuries,” Orsino said.
Feeling he had not done anything special, Gavasto said he was not expecting the accolades he received Monday.
“I would hope that anyone driving by that would see an officer in distress or anyone in distress would pull over to help.” he said. “Help out where you can. Help those that need it. That’s really the take away I got from all this.”
West View police charged Pratt with a second-degree felony count of aggravated assault and misdemeanor counts of simple assault and resisting arrest.
Pratt was arraigned April 7 and released on an unsecured $20,000 bond.
Pratt’s preliminary hearing, originally scheduled for April 29 before District Judge Richard G. Opiela, was continued to July 1, according to court records.