LF: Police officers videoed as they taser and beat Pittsburgh baseball fan in front of chanting drunk supporters

Title: Police officers videoed as they taser and beat Pittsburgh baseball fan in front of chanting drunk supporters
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... l-fan-chanting-supporters.html
Published: Apr 12, 2011
Author: Daily Mail Reporter
Post Date: 2011-04-12 18:54:32 by Sebastian
Keywords: None
Views: 3197
Comments: 1

A rowdy baseball fan was videoed being shot with a Taser and beaten by police in front dozens of chanting drunken supporters.

There have been 300,000 views on Facebook of the bust-up between the officers and 41-year-old Scott Ashley at the game between Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies.

The footage shows two officers tasering him to little effect and clubbing him at least six times in the neck, head, side and legs before he is eventually handcuffed.

Take that: An allegedly drunken Scott Ashley elbows a fan after failing to connect with a high-five as he left the stadium while Pittsburgh Pirates were playing the Colorado Rockies

Take that: An allegedly drunken Scott Ashley is seen elbowing a fan after as he left the Pirates stadium in Pittsburgh

Taunting: Ashley clashes with a police officer armed with a baton at the Pirates game in Pittsburgh

Taunting: Ashley clashes with a police officer armed with a baton after being asked to leave

Take that: The police officer hits with Ashley with his baton below as chanting fans watch the confrontation at the game after he had been asked to leave the stadium

Take that: The police officer hits with Ashley with his baton as fans chanting 'USA, USA' watch the confrontation

Today an anonymous Pirates fan posted his $5,000 bond after Ashley, from Friendship, was charged with four misdemeanours, including public drunkenness and resisting arrest.

He had been asked to leave the stadium in the 6th innings because he was disrupting the Saturday game for other fans with foul language, said said Brian Warecki, Pirates' communications director.

Police said he refused to move and swore at stadium security staff for blocking his view.

One police officer can be heard telling him that he could leave the easy way or the hard way, and Ashley responded: 'The hard way, brother.'

The video shows him walking down the stairs as fans begin chanting, 'USA, USA' because of the red white and blue windbreaker he is wearing.

Come here: Two officers, one armed with a Taser, the other a baton, chase after Ashley as he tries to leave

Stay down: Officers wrestle Ashley to the floor after clubbing him about the body and tasering him

Handcuffed: Ashley is subdued and cuffed. He faces four charges including drunken behaviour and resisting arrest

It was at that moment an officer pulled out his Taser gun, which can be heard in the video, and hit Ashley with it.

Charged: Scott Ashley

Ashley, at 5ft 9ins tall and 220 lbs, appears unfazed but then tells the officer: 'Don't hit me!'

Wires can be seen reflecting in the light, apparently connected to Ashley's arm as he tries to pull them out. Then after a flurry of clubs, Ashley falls to the ground.

Ashley's girlfriend Amanda Harle, a 30-year-old producer and writer for KDKA-TV, was also arrested after confronting police about his arrest.

Harle faces charges of aggravated assault against a police officer and disorderly conduct.

But she told Channel 11: 'This all started because he swore. He didn't attack them. He wasn't trying to attack them.'

But one of the arresting officers, city detective Francis Rende, said: 'We both feared for our safety.'

In his criminal report Rende wrote: 'I physically grabbed [him] to place him under arrest, [he] was a very muscular man and fought with both of us. I kept activating the taser to no avail.'

Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper said his department 'recognizes the importance of video evidence when reviewing any interactions between the police and the public.

'Pittsburgh expressly forbids any use of force that is excessive. As a matter of policy this incident and all incidents where force is utilised are reviewed.'

Pirates management released a statement claiming they received several complaints about Ashley and asked him to leave and that when he refused and threatened staff, it became a police matter.

After what happened to the fan at Dodger stadium, these rowdy fans are going to be run out of stadiums, one way or another. Their choice....peacefully or pay the price physically and monetarily.