Report: Officer In Taser Incident with North Hills Man Plans to Return to Work

Pittsburgh Police Detective Frank Rende, whose actions Saturday prompted Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to recommend his firing, plans to be back on the job Tuesday, KDKA TV reports.

Detective Frank Rende was recorded Saturday outside the Claddagh Irish Pub on the South Side holding a Taser to Mark Keyser Jr., 27, of Ross Township.

Video of the incident was posted on social media the next day. Click here to see it. (Warning: the video contains offensive language.)

Rende wrote in a criminal complaint that he held the Taser to Keyser's neck but did not activate it. Rende wrote that Keyser was drunk and fell over into a white plastic fence because he lost his balance, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. 

Ravenstahl made it clear to KDKA that he thinks Rende over-reacted.

“At first glance, for me, completely unacceptable, flat out wrong," he said. "I’m not an expert on procedures and policies, but I can tell you that I’m sure they were all violated in that case. To have an officer literally chase down the individual and use force like he did is just something that will not be tolerated and not accepted.

Again, I want to give the public safety director and the chief the benefit of a conversation, but at this point, I see no reason that this individual should not be terminated.” 

The incident is under review by the Pittsburgh office of Municipal Investigations and Pittsburgh's Citizen Police Review Board.

According to the Post-Gazette, Detective Rende has been accused at least a dozen times of conduct unbecoming an officer, including verbal abuse and excessive force.

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