Pittsburgh Mayor Wants Probe Of Cops In East Liberty Protest

PITTSBURGH, PA — Mayor Bill Peduto has asked for third-party inquiries into the protest in East Liberty that resulted in 20 arrests and nine injured police officers. Peduto wants the Office of Municipal Investigations and the Citizen Police Review Board to examine whether police acted appropriately.

Peduto also asked that the review board perform its investigation in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Pittsburgh branch and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Monday's hours-long protest, which included more than a thousand demonstrators, turned violent at the end. Public safety officials said a small segment of the protesters threw rocks and bricks at officers.

RELATED>>> 9 Officers Hurt, 20 Arrests Made In Pittsburgh Protest.

City officials said smoke canisters were fired at the protesters after they ignored repeated instructions to disperse. They later acknowledged tear gas was used.

“For the past 36 hours, I have studied best practices of less lethal crowd dispersion, I have read countless comments on social media and viewed first-hand video, photographs and accounts," Peduto wrote in a letter to the Office of Municipal Investigations.

"The public safety Director provided me with the written official transcripts of all Command operations during that day and I have talked with every person in the Command rank who was on the ground or in the Command Center. Without question, there is a difference of opinion about what happened that day and the appropriateness of the actions of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.”