{"id":281666,"date":"2026-09-08T19:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281666\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T19:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:50:15","slug":"man-lit-fires-near-rivers-casino-before-tossing-firework-under-cruiser-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281666\/","title":{"rendered":"Man lit fires near Rivers Casino before tossing firework under cruiser, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man lit fires near Rivers Casino before tossing firework under cruiser, police say<\/p>\n

\"RaquelPITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\n

A man accused of lighting fires on Pittsburgh’s North Side allegedly tossed a lit firework underneath a police vehicle. <\/p>\n

Officials were called to Reedsdale Street Tuesday morning for a suspicious man who was walking around with an open flame. <\/p>\n

That man, later identified as Jeffrey Rotunda, was allegedly spotted lighting the side of a trash can on fire by Rivers Casino before leaving the area. <\/p>\n

Rotunda is then accused of stopping outside the Downtown Public Safety Center, where he allegedly threw a lit sparkler under a police vehicle.<\/p>\n

He was eventually taken into custody on Stanwix Street at Boulevard of the Allies while he was setting fire to a piece of cardboard. <\/p>\n

Rotunda is facing multiple charges including arson and criminal mischief. Police say while they were investigating Rotunda, they found traffic cones that had also been burned. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man lit fires near Rivers Casino before tossing firework under cruiser, police say PITTSBURGH \u2014 A man accused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[36,42737,41868,15864,117718,1911,13094,2590,117719,58720,422,37974,117714,117715,117716,1399,1406,5567,117721,10046,73,75,74,745,206,485,73105,25847,24934,117720,74627,117717],"class_list":["post-281666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-arson","tag-boulevard","tag-boulevard-of-the-allies","tag-cardboard","tag-cardboard-fire","tag-criminal-mischief","tag-cruiser","tag-custody","tag-downtown-arrest","tag-downtown-public-safety-center","tag-fire","tag-firework","tag-jeffrey-rotunda","tag-lit-firework","tag-lit-sparkler","tag-man","tag-multiple-charge","tag-north-side","tag-open-flame","tag-piece","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-police","tag-police","tag-police-vehicle","tag-reedsdale-street","tag-rivers-casino","tag-stanwix-street","tag-suspicious-man","tag-traffic-cones","tag-trash-can-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281666","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=281666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}