Bruce Kelley Jr.’s family wants justice nearly two years after his death
Homeless, mentally ill, and under the influence of alcohol, Bruce Kelley Jr. just wanted to be left alone—as he told the small army of Port Authority of Allegheny County police attempting to arrest him nearly two years ago after an earlier alleged fight with two officers in Wilkinsburg. He waived a small knife at them to make his point as he tried to walk away from them on the afternoon of Jan. 31, 2016.
But the officers didn’t leave him alone. Instead, Sgt. Brian O’Malley sicced a dog on him, and after Kelley fatally slashed the animal while defending himself, O’Malley and Officer Dominic Rivotti shot him seven times—twice in the back.
The dog, Aren, received an officer’s funeral, complete with a motorcade that shut down city streets. Kelley’s family had to solicit donations from the community to cover his funeral expenses.
Now, nearly two years later, Noah Geary, the attorney for Kelley’s estate, has filed a federal civil rights case charging the Port Authority, its police force and O’Malley and Rivotti with wrongful death and excessive use of force. He announced the lawsuit at a Dec. 11 press conference in his Washington County office.
Geary said that police—from the initial encounter onward—escalated the situation, leading to the death of the dog and Kelley’s shooting, which he said was entirely unnecessary.
“Instead of simply de-escalating the interaction, the defendants and their fellow officers escalated the situation,” he said in the complaint. “Furthermore, the K-9 dog is dead not because of Kelley, but because the defendants mishandled the situation badly…Defendants O’Malley and Rivotti used unreasonable, excessive, deadly force by shooting Kelley in the back repeatedly and killing him.”
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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