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Cell Phone Video Captures Start Of PNC Park Fan Altercation

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The video of an unruly fan being ejected and getting into an altercation with Pittsburgh police has gone viral.

The police criminal complaint says 41-year-old Scott Ashley refused to leave section 235 of the park for unruly conduct and cell phone video backs up that part of the complaint.

"You're going to go the hard way or the easy way," an officer said to Ashley. That remark was captured on cell phone video.

But police say as Ashley left, he began the confrontation that went around the world on the internet.

"He escalated it when he came down the steps and pushed the usher," Elizabeth Pittinger, president of the Pittsburgh Citizen Review Board, said. "At that point, the taser was deployed. He was not reacting to the taser and he was still arguing with the officer and then you can see his left hand reaching towards the officer – that caused a further escalation."

Pittinger says there are questions about the use of police batons to the head and the use of knees on Scott in the altercation.

The other factor was the large crowd that gathered and started chanting which added to the tense situation.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper said in a written statement that sometimes use of force is required by officers to protect themselves or the public and that the video evidence would be reviewed along with all other documents in this case.

Ashley has been released from the Allegheny County Jail. Others arrested in relation to the incident will face preliminary hearings.

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