DEVLON PRIDGEN’S FACE IS SHOWN AFTER HE WAS ARRESTED ON THE NORTH SIDE, DEC. 29, 2024.
Black Political Empowerment Project Chairman and CEO Tim Stevens, NAACP Pittsburgh Branch President Daylon A. Davis and other community leaders are holding the City of Pittsburgh’s feet to the fire after a number of recent arrests of African Americans that they deemed excessive and possibly unlawful.
The first arrest came on Dec. 29, 2024, when a Black man, Devlon Pridgen, was arrested on the North Side by Pittsburgh Police. A bystander video shown on local television outlets captured multiple police officers trying to apprehend Pridgen, with a woman screaming off-camera that Pridgen didn’t have any weapons on him. Pridgen suffered cuts to his face and photos have since surfaced of Pridgen’s face bloodied and bruised following the arrest.
The second arrest came on Dec. 31, 2024, when a Black woman, Morgan Daniels, was arrested by Pittsburgh Police by being “forcibly removed from her home,” according to a joint statement by B-PEP, the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch and the Alliance for Police Accountability, Jan. 9. A video of the encounter, which has since been circulated on social media but not widely shown on local television, shows, in the opinion of B-PEP and the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch, “an officer” pushing and falling on Daniels, “forcing her to fall down her front steps,” before being “violently handcuffed.”
B-PEP, the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch and the Alliance for Police Accountability then said that a “female police officer appears to be seen forcibly dragging another member of the household down the steps and pulling them over the cement edge of the wall of the steps. She then proceeded to punch that household member at least once while she was in handcuffs, before another male officer was seen dragging that same family member several feet across the concrete.”
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF DEVLON PRIDGEN, ARRESTED BY PITTSBURGH POLICE ON DEC. 29, 2024, ON THE NORTH SIDE.
The Courier has learned that the Dec. 31, 2024, incident involving Daniels and other women occurred in Pittsburgh’s Carrick neighborhood.
In the Jan. 3 joint statement by B-PEP and the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch concerning Pridgen’s arrest, the community organizations said the available video of the encounter seems to be “significantly more excessive and aggressive than necessary, and possibly violating significant police procedures.” The groups requested to know what circumstances led to the police arresting Pridgen in the first place; why was such a level of force used, especially when there were multiple officers at the scene; and since Pridgen was unarmed according to a woman off-camera, why was the “physical interaction on the part of the police appear to us to be unnecessary, inappropriate, and abusive.”
Stevens and Davis, who lead B-PEP and the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch respectively, want the investigation to be “thorough, transparent and fair…in recent years, a lot of work has gone into attempting to improve community-police relations on the part of community organizations including ours, it only takes a few incidents to disrupt the progress that has been made.”
As for the Morgan Daniels arrest, which was witnessed by multiple people, Stevens, Davis and Brandi Fisher (leader of Alliance for Police Accountability) said that “we are concerned that such aggressive physical actions by Pittsburgh Police were utilized, potentially violating the City of Pittsburgh’s use of force policies and procedures, and undoubtedly harming the ever changing and sensitive nature of community and police relationship.”
They requested a meeting with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt, and Acting Police Chief Christopher Ragland. Stevens told the Courier on Jan. 21 that the city responded, and a meeting is scheduled with Stevens, Daylon, Fisher, Public Safety Director Schmidt and Acting Police Chief Ragland in the next seven days. A meeting with Mayor Gainey is expected to take place in February.
Cara Cruz, public information officer for Pittsburgh Public Safety, told the Courier on Jan. 21 that “Pittsburgh Police leadership” is reviewing the Dec. 29, 2024, incident involving Pridgen. “Any accusation of improper conduct is taken seriously, and will be thoroughly investigated by both the department and by the City’s Office of Municipal Investigations which is responsible for investigating citizen complaints of misconduct alleged against employees of the City of Pittsburgh.”
Cruz said Pittsburgh Police is “also aware, and leadership has reviewed, the incident that police were called to on December 31 (2024)” on Edgar Street. Cruz said three people, including Daniels, were arrested and charged with aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and public drunkenness.
“Finally,” the community groups said in its Jan. 9 statement, “as we embark on a new year, we are once again requesting that the Bureau immediately review all police policies and procedures, including training and documentation involving the use of force, so as to avoid more scenarios like that which transpired on the last day of 2024.”
About Post Author
