Meanwhile. . .
Pittsburgh police from throughout the city were dispatched Wednesday night to the latest in a string of violent city incidents involving teenagers: a disorderly crowd of nearly 400 juveniles who were wreaking havoc at an East Liberty park.
Over the two hours that followed, officers pepper-sprayed juveniles, blared orders for the group to disperse and temporarily locked down a nearby Target store, police spokeswoman Cara Cruz told TribLive Thursday.
No arrests were made.
Multiple units from all of the police bureau’s six zones responded around 8 p.m. to the 3-acre Liberty Green Park on Larimer Avenue, Cruz said.
Councilman Khari Mosley, whose district includes East Liberty, posted Thursday morning on Facebook about the disturbance.
“We know that the flash crowd disturbance was organized online, involved teens from numerous municipalities across Allegheny County, and appears to have involved very few young people from the immediate area,” Mosley wrote.
Mosley was not available for comment, but Grace D. Turner-Taylor, his chief of staff, said multiple teens in the crowd were fighting each other.
It remains unclear whether the gathering fit the contours of a “teen takeover,”
a national phenomenon where teens use social media to quickly organize massive gatherings that are often unruly — and sometimes violent.
Cmdr. Stephen Vinansky confirmed Thursday the citywide response from police included officers from the Zone 4 station which he oversees in nearby Squirrel Hill.
He could not provide an estimate on the number of officers who responded.
“There were a number of officers that responded quickly to disperse the crowd and stop the fighting,” Vinansky said.
No officers were injured in the commotion, he said.
Pittsburgh police Chief Jason Lando, five of the bureau’s six zone commanders, and Cornell Jones, the bureau’s assistant director for community affairs, did not respond to phone calls, emails or text messages Thursday seeking comment.
Public Safety Director Sheldon Williams declined to discuss the incident and referred questions to Cruz.
Mosley wrote on Facebook that he was “briefed at length” about the incident and spoke with Zone 5 Cmdr. Lance Hoyson, the top-ranking officer whose patrol district covers East Liberty, and Jones.
“When public safety is proactive, we can hopefully see these incidents dwindle,” Mayor Corey O’Connor told reporters Thursday during an unrelated press conference.
He did not elaborate.
O’Connor’s spokeswoman said the mayor was not available for an interview with TribLive. Dan Gilman, the mayor’s chief of staff, did not respond to a phone call or text message.
Officials do not yet know who organized the gathering or whether it was intended to be violent, Turner-Taylor said.
All hands on deck
On Wednesday night, a police supervisor observed the large, disorderly crowd and immediately called for assistance citywide. Multiple units from all zones responded to assist.
Cruz said there were an “estimated 400 juveniles fighting and being disorderly.”
Police ordered the crowd to leave the park three times, each about 10 minutes apart — “and each time with no success in the juveniles leaving the area,” Cruz said.
At 8:30 p.m., police approved the use of “OC spray,” a nonlethal self-defense tool commonly known as pepper spray, Cruz said. Three officers then sprayed the teens.
By 10:15 p.m., the crowd had shrunk to “25 disorderly kids” on the nearby Pittsburgh Regional Transit busway, Cruz said.
“We wouldn’t be as concerned with teens gathering if there wasn’t violence,” Turner-Taylor said. “I think teens should come into spaces and be welcomed into spaces … but they need to (watch) their behavior.”
Turner-Taylor said Mosley hopes to discuss the issue with residents, business owners and others June 27 at a community event on East Liberty’s Broad Street.
“All hands need to be on deck,” Turner-Taylor said.
Crime is up in East Liberty
The incident follows several acts of youth violence in the city.
In March, police made multiple arrests after a group of 40 teens brawled in Downtown Pittsburgh’s Market Square. The fight
helped trigger a chaperone policy at the historic public space.
In April,
a teen was repeatedly stabbed late at night in front of a Downtown police substation. In May, a 19-year-old Duquesne man
was fatally shot in Market Square.
Just this week,
a 15-year-old boy was charged in the murder of a second teen in Downtown’s Cultural District after midnight Sunday.
Crime is up this year in East Liberty, as well as in two of Pittsburgh’s most heavily trafficked neighborhoods — Downtown and South Side.
Reported crime jumped 17% in East Liberty in the first five months of this year, compared to the same period in 2025, police data show.
Aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts and motor vehicle thefts were up in the neighborhood, according to crime statistics. Sex offenses and robberies were down.
No homicides have been reported this year in East Liberty. At this time last year, there was one killing.
It’s hard to say how much crime in Pittsburgh is caused by juveniles. Pittsburgh police don’t report the age of suspects or victims in their public-facing databases.
But national figures show young people account for an increasingly small part of American crime arrests.
A Council on Criminal Justice report showed juveniles made up 19% of all arrests in the nation in 1980. The number has lingered around 7% since 2018.
Pittsburgh police from throughout the city were dispatched Wednesday night to the latest in a string of violent city incidents involving teenagers: a disorderly crowd of nearly 400 juveniles who were wreaking havoc at an East Liberty park. Over the two hours that followed, officers...
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