A Ravenna man who traveled with his wife to a Roger Waters concert in Pittsburgh this week ended up pinned to the pavement and beaten by police.
The incident occurred after Daniel Adelman, 47, stepped outside the PPG Arena to smoke a cigarette and saw two Pittsburgh police officers — working off duty and in plain clothes — trying to arrest a stranger.
Three other officers, including at least one in uniform, soon became involved and Adelman joined the fray.
A bystander apparently videotaped what happened next. The video, which has been viewed online thousands of times, shows an officer repeatedly striking Adelman and slamming his head into the ground before subduing Adelman with a Taser.
Adelman later said he was trying to help police, but ended up in trouble himself. His family said he suffered a broken nose, dislocated shoulder and possible concussion.
On Wednesday, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said one of the officers involved — Andrew Jacobs — was put on desk duty as the city and district attorney review what happened.
“Our police officers are trained to de-escalate situations,” Peduto said in the prepared statement. “We have zero tolerance for deviation to that standard.” The other officers involved returned to regular duty.
Adelman, a newlywed who married a nurse from Stow about nine months ago, works as a house painter.
He spoke with Pittsburgh television station KDKA as he left the Allegheny County Jail on Wednesday.
“I was smoking a cigarette and I see an officer with a suit on and then I see this other guy and I thought the officer in the suit was in trouble,” Adelman told KDKA. “So I went down there and, you know, and then all hell broke loose.”
Adelman acknowledged he had been drinking at the concert and may not have gotten involved otherwise.
But Adelman insisted he was trying to help police, not hinder them.
“In the end, it was probably not the right situation to jump in without knowing the situation,” Adelman said.
In a criminal complaint against Adelman, officer Jacobs wrote that Adelman “took a fighting stance” and said that he feared Adelman was going to attack so “I struck the male in the face to halt his attacking and advancing nature.”
Jacobs acknowledged punching Adelman three to five times in the face and four to seven times in the rib cage to get him to lie down and be handcuffed, according to the complaint.
The city’s police union and its officers are not permitted to comment publicly during an internal review.
Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert said the internal findings will be publicized when completed.
The chief and district attorney said police use-of-force incidents are routinely reviewed; the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations, which fields complaints of police misconduct, and its Citizen Police Review Board, which is independent and can only recommend discipline, are also investigating.
Adelman, meanwhile, has hired Pittsburgh criminal defense attorney Phil DiLucente to represent him.
Adelman could not be reached Thursday. His sister, Shelli Andrick, 48, of Springfield, Ohio, told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette this week that her brother is a passive man who would “turn around backwards” to avoid getting into a fight, “especially with police.”
On Tuesday, Andrick said Adelman’s wife didn’t know what happened to her husband when he failed to return to the concert from his smoke break.
It’s unclear how much time passed, but Andrick said Adelman ultimately sent his wife, Jen, a text that read: “I’m arrested. Find me.”
Police are reviewing the use of force in this arrest outside PPG Paints Arena last night. http://on.wpxi.com/2fhW8w0
Posted by WPXI-TV Pittsburgh on Wednesday, 20 September 2017