\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe City of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, along with three officers and a commander, were named in a lawsuit stemming from the February 2024 arrest of a man with autism. “He respects police officers, likes police officers, has had a good, sort of, feeling toward police officers throughout his life until this happened,\u201d said attorney James Tallman, who is representing the plaintiff. \u201cUnfortunately, this has had an impact on how he views police officers.\u201dAccording to the lawsuit, Kevin Dunn went for an afternoon walk in his West End neighborhood when he was suddenly surrounded by police cars. Officers Seth Tessmer, Jordan Price, and Anthony Rosato allegedly tried to detain Dunn before he ran to his aunt\u2019s front porch nearby, the complaint said. According to the document, that\u2019s where police wrestled Dunn to the ground and used a taser on him, \u201cwithout any rational justification.\u201dDunn was later taken to the hospital and released without any charges. \u201cHe had marks from the tasers, some bruising from the tasers, but most of the injury was emotional and psychological. A traumatic experience that has continued to impact him,\u201d Tallman told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 reporter Jordan Cioppa. During his walk, Dunn had a small stick in his hand used for stimming, which consists of repetitive movements, sounds, and actions commonly performed by people with autism. “It can oftentimes be misinterpreted if you don’t understand what it is. Plain and simple,\u201d said Jesse Torisky, the President and CEO of Autism Pittsburgh. \u201cThe more you’re able to familiarize yourself with that, the better it is that you’ll be able to make the best decision under the circumstances.\u201dDunn also displayed what are described as \u201cunusual mannerisms stereotypical to those with autism.\u201dTorisky teaches first responders to be on the lookout for characteristics, like the ones stated in the complaint. He offers an autism-focused training for law enforcement where he lays out effective methods of communication and de-escalation. “If they can identify early on that this person’s on the spectrum, it would greatly increase the likelihood of a less violent result,\u201d Torisky said. The complaint alleges there is a \u201clack of training with neurodivergent\/autistic individuals\u201d at the bureau of police.The three officers\u2019 supervisor, Commander Raymond Rippole, was also sued. The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial.A Pittsburgh city spokesperson said they do not comment on pending litigation. Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 requested a comment from Pittsburgh Police but did not hear back.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The City of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, along with three officers and a commander, were named in a lawsuit stemming from the February 2024 arrest of a man with autism. <\/p>\n
“He respects police officers, likes police officers, has had a good, sort of, feeling toward police officers throughout his life until this happened,\u201d said attorney James Tallman, who is representing the plaintiff. \u201cUnfortunately, this has had an impact on how he views police officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the lawsuit, Kevin Dunn went for an afternoon walk in his West End neighborhood when he was suddenly surrounded by police cars. <\/p>\n
Officers Seth Tessmer, Jordan Price, and Anthony Rosato allegedly tried to detain Dunn before he ran to his aunt\u2019s front porch nearby, the complaint said. According to the document, that\u2019s where police wrestled Dunn to the ground and used a taser on him, \u201cwithout any rational justification.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunn was later taken to the hospital and released without any charges. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had marks from the tasers, some bruising from the tasers, but most of the injury was emotional and psychological. A traumatic experience that has continued to impact him,\u201d Tallman told Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 reporter Jordan Cioppa. <\/p>\n
During his walk, Dunn had a small stick in his hand used for stimming, which consists of repetitive movements, sounds, and actions commonly performed by people with autism. <\/p>\n
“It can oftentimes be misinterpreted if you don’t understand what it is. Plain and simple,\u201d said Jesse Torisky, the President and CEO of Autism Pittsburgh. \u201cThe more you’re able to familiarize yourself with that, the better it is that you’ll be able to make the best decision under the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunn also displayed what are described as \u201cunusual mannerisms stereotypical to those with autism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torisky teaches first responders to be on the lookout for characteristics, like the ones stated in the complaint. He offers an autism-focused training for law enforcement where he lays out effective methods of communication and de-escalation. <\/p>\n
“If they can identify early on that this person’s on the spectrum, it would greatly increase the likelihood of a less violent result,\u201d Torisky said. <\/p>\n
The complaint alleges there is a \u201clack of training with neurodivergent\/autistic individuals\u201d at the bureau of police.<\/p>\n
The three officers\u2019 supervisor, Commander Raymond Rippole, was also sued. The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial.<\/p>\n
A Pittsburgh city spokesperson said they do not comment on pending litigation. <\/p>\n
Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 requested a comment from Pittsburgh Police but did not hear back. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, along with three officers and a commander, were named in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[900,60056,7518,60055,15857,60054,60053,21082,2676,1399,60058,4042,73,75,74,745,60057,9892],"class_list":["post-129085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-action-news","tag-afternoon-walk","tag-autism","tag-autism-focused-training","tag-complaint","tag-jesse-torisky","tag-kevin-dunn","tag-lack","tag-lawsuit","tag-man","tag-neurodivergent","tag-officer","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-police","tag-plaintiff","tag-taser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}