Teen charged in Pittsburgh assault that left man unconscious and not breathing, officials say
A teenager was charged as a juvenile after a man was assaulted in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood on Thursday evening, authorities said.
In an update on Friday, Pittsburgh Public Safety said a 16-year-old male was charged with aggravated assault in connection with the beating that left a man with critical injuries. The man's condition was updated to stable on Friday, according to authorities.
Pittsburgh Public Safety said officers were called to South St. Clair and Eva streets around 5 p.m. on Thursday for reports of a man who was assaulted by a group of people. The assault happened next to a Whole Foods store.
At the scene, which bordered a park with a playground, first responders found a man who was unconscious and not breathing. Officers and medics performed CPR on the man until he was taken to a local hospital. The exact nature of his injuries was not released.
Pittsburgh Public Safety said "several males of unknown age" were detained and transported to police headquarters for questioning.
On Thursday, a KDKA-TV crew observed a second police scene nearby on Centre Avenue next to The Fresh Market. At that scene, KDKA-TV observed what appeared to be at least one teenager being taken into a police car. A witness told KDKA-TV they saw police questioning nearly 10 people, ranging from grade schoolers to teenagers.
Pittsburgh Public Safety did not say what led up to the assault.
"Those kids, whoever they were, need to be reprimanded for that, because that was horrible, horrible," said Asia Wilter, who was nearby on Thursday evening.
Over the weekend, another man was assaulted outside a 7-Eleven store on Penn Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh. Police say the assault started inside the 7-Eleven after the victim mentioned to an employee that he believed a group of teenage males was shoplifting.
Pittsburgh police say the victim scraped his elbow and had a small abrasion on his face. He refused to be transported to the hospital, but police say he went on his own to get checked out. Police are searching for the teens.
Earlier this month, six teenage girls were charged after authorities said they chased a woman into a Sephora store in East Liberty and beat her. Sephora's loss prevention officer estimated the teens caused approximately $30,000 in damage.
Richard Garland is involved in violence prevention work with his organization, Reimagine Reentry.
"I think it's because they didn't have something to do, they didn't have no places to go," Garland said.
He wants to make sure folks realize this is a small percentage of teens acting out in the city.
"Everybody's drawing a line in the sand, and they think it's all our kids, and all our kids are not involved in some of these activities," Garland said.
Garland added that the problem comes down to parents, local outreach groups and police working together.
"We also got to really think about how we can help some of these parents. These parents are at their wits' end with some of these kids as well," Garland said.
