As the New Pittsburgh Courier previously reported, the incident began about 3 p.m. when Port Authority officers Emily Hampy and Tom Adams approached Kelley and his father, Bruce Kelley Sr., who were drinking at a gazebo near the East Busway on authority property.
At a March 2016 hearing, Hampy said “they just wanted to talk.” Kelley Jr. started to walk away, she testified, then “he charged.”
As they struggled with the younger Kelley, he “bearhugged” onto one of the gazebo columns. She said as she tried to pull one arm loose, he called his father for help. That was when Kelley Sr. came at her and struck her in the head. She said she blasted him with pepper spray twice and was trying to handcuff him when the younger Kelley pulled a knife. The officers retreated and called for backup.
When additional officers arrived, they followed Kelley Jr. as he walked through several yards, and tried to stop him with pepper spray and Taser, but neither were effective. When O’Malley arrived, he told Kelley Jr. to drop his knife and lie down or he’d release the dog. Kelley Jr. said, if that happened, he would kill the dog.
In June 2016, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala said Port Authority officers O’Malley and Rivotti were justified in shooting Kelley Jr. In his report, Zappala said officers had “tried to wrestle Kelley Jr. to the ground, tried to use a collapsible baton to remove the knife from him, and stunned him with a Taser, but that those methods did not work.
“Quite simply, non-lethal options had been deployed at length and to no avail,” wrote Zappala on page 11 of the report.
Geary’s lawsuit disputes that Kelley threatened officers with the knife. Geary and Kelley’s family members also note the dog attacked the wrong arm, his left arm. The knife was in his right hand.
“Had the dog been properly trained, it would have bit Kelley’s right arm,” Geary said.
In addition to O’Malley, Rivotti and the authority, the lawsuit names authority police Chief Matthew Porter, three unidentified officers, and the county. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of his sister Calisia Kelley and mother Johnnie Mae Kelley, the administrators of Kelley Jr.’s estate.
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