One person was taken to a hospital and another was arrested early Sunday after Pittsburgh police broke up a crowd of young people who they said were fighting and throwing fireworks at each other and officers while trying to enter a private event space in East Liberty.<\/p>\n
In a statement, police said officers responded around midnight to the 5900 block of Penn Avenue after a “large crowd” was reported to be fighting there, in the heart of the East Liberty business district. When police arrived, they said they encountered about 150 young people who were fighting and “trying to gain access to an event space.<\/p>\n
People in the crowd “largely ignored” repeated commands to leave the area, and instead began to throw fireworks in the crowd and at police vehicles, police said. Officers summoned more police units from other zones around the city to help them clear the crowd, and they closed Penn Avenue for several blocks until they secured the area, according to the police statement.<\/p>\n
An adult man was arrested and taken to the Allegheny County Jail, but charges against him had not been released Sunday morning. A teen male was taken to a hospital to be examined, and he will receive a citation and released to his parents after leaving the hospital, police said. No other injuries were reported.<\/p>\n
The incident came days after Pittsburgh police and Public Safety officials, in a news conference Thursday, expressed concerns about disruptive youth gatherings in the city<\/a> and stressed that they would have a zero-tolerance policy for such behavior during the July 4 holiday celebration and weekend ahead.<\/p>\n “… I want to be very clear that nuisance and disruptive behavior will not be tolerated,” Public Safety Director Sheldon Williams said Thursday. He and other public safety urged families and parents to monitor their children and attend public events with them rather than permit them to go out alone late at night. <\/p>\n Their comments came in advance of the city’s annual July 4 fireworks display \u2014 which typically draws thousands of people to Point State Park and Downtown \u2014 and other related festivities Downtown, on the North Side and in other neighborhoods. Police on Sunday did not report any arrests or significant incidents related to the fireworks display, which was postponed by 30 minutes due to weather conditions.<\/p>\n