A fan at a Pittsburgh Pirates game was tasered and repeatedly clubbed by police Saturday night, according to an Internet video, with fans chanting and screaming.
Scott J. Ashley, 41, of Friendship, Pa., was arrested at the Pirates' game at PNC Park. and charged with four misdemeanors, including public drunkenness and resisting arrest.
The video shows two officers taking at least six swings at Ashley, tasering him before clubbing him in the neck, head, side and legs. He was eventually cuffed on the concourse floor.
"We both feared for our safety," city detective Francis Rende wrote in a criminal complaint,
according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The other officer is named Lebella, but no first name was given, according to the paper.
Pirates team spokesman Brian Warecki said that police were forced to intervene because the man appeared to be drunk and antagonized fans in his section. He refused to cooperate with stadium ushers to who asked him to leave and, at the outset of the video, shoves an usher before police intervene.
The video begins as a stocky bald man, apparently Ashley, escorted by police down the stadium steps. When Ashley tried to high-five another fan while leaving, a PNC employee -- Travis Skibiel, according to the police report -- appears to put his arm up to try and block the high-five. Ashley elbowed the man in response; Ashley then threatened to kill Skibiel, according to the report.
Then, the action began, with Ashley tasered and beaten, while fans began screaming and taunting police.
It isn't visible in the video, but Rende claimed in his report that people were spitting and throwing drinks on the officers.
"We were being surrounded by the drunken fans and finally got the actor up and took him to the security office," Rende wrote. "All the while facing the wrath of a very hostile crowd."
