New Kensington police officer under investigation after violent confrontation with suspect

An officer with the New Kensington Police Department is on leave and under investigation after a violent confrontation with a suspect who ended up in the hospital with serious facial injuries. 

Police say a man and a woman were looking to break into an abandoned house last week, but the two told friends they were only picking up fallen apples in the yard. Moments later, the woman was in handcuffs and the man, identified as Anthony Delarosa, tussled with officers when he sustained broken cheekbones and other facial injuries. 

Now, Delarosa is out on bond, charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, loitering and prowling at night. However, New Kensington Police Officer Nathaniel Cochran — who investigators say inflicted the facial wounds — has been taken off the street. 

The city clerk, John Zavadak, told KDKA-TV that "It's a pressing issue. The city is reviewing it, and it's been referred to the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office for investigation. Officer Cochran is on administrative leave." The DA's office confirmed the investigation. 

According to the incident report, Cochran and an officer from nearby Arnold responded to the abandoned house due to a 911 call of a man and a woman on bikes suspected of trying to break in. But when police arrived, there was no one there. The two police officers soon confronted the pair, who were riding their bikes down an alley, when a tussle ensued, the report says. 

The officer who wrote the report says when he arrived, the woman was in handcuffs and Cochran and the officer from Arnold were tussling with Delarosa on the ground. The arriving officer says he shocked Delarosa three times with a Taser but to no avail. 

The report says Delarosa flailed and resisted orders to put his hands behind his back, stating he then tried to bite Cochran on the thigh. The report states: "Officer Cochran delivered a few elbow strikes to Delarosa's facial region in an attempt to prevent him from biting."  

Family members who declined to be interviewed say that after being released from jail, Delarosa went to the hospital for broken cheekbones and a fractured jaw. 

Delarosa is well known to the New Kensington police, having been arrested and convicted time and again in the past two decades for drug possession, disorderly conduct and fights. Cochran has been a police officer in New Kensington for the past three years.

But for now, Cochran is on administrative leave in relation to this incident, which remains under investigation.