James Frierson and Jim Rogers grew up together. After all, they were brothers, Frierson three years older.
They grew up in the same house most of their young lives, at 6060 Poketa Road, Penn Hills.
“Jim was a gentle soul, he caused nobody any danger, any harm,” Frierson told the New Pittsburgh Courier exclusively about his younger brother, Rogers.
Rogers died one day after he was Tased numerous times by a Pittsburgh Police officer on Oct. 13, 2021. The officer was responding to reports of a man who stole a bicycle. Many officers showed up, but none seemed to give Rogers the medical attention he needed as he sat in the back of a police car after being Tased.
“Growing up, he was a great kid, great athlete in the Penn Hills School District in football,” Frierson said about his brother. “In life, sometimes you kind of lose your way, but he never lost the person who he was. He was harmless. He didn’t pose a threat to anyone. He would help you before he tried to hurt you.”
Frierson said Rogers looked up to him “to some degree. I tried to set a good example for him. Our interactions were always great.”
Five officers were fired by the City of Pittsburgh in 2022 in the fallout of the Rogers incident, which was caught on video. Still, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed, and on April 27, 2023, attorney Todd Hollis announced that the City of Pittsburgh settled the suit with the Rogers family for $8 million, called a “historic settlement” by Hollis.
“We grew up in the same house most of our (young) lives, but even after (Frierson moved to inside Pittsburgh), he came and stayed with me for a couple of years after he was grown,” Frierson told the Courier. “No trouble, no nothing. Never an issue at all. For something like this to happen, no one deserves that to happen to them. For it to be my brother, it stings a little deeper.”
Frierson concluded: “I wish he was still here to try to make a change for himself.”
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