Braddock mayor arrested in incident near UPMC headquarters
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Pittsburgh police arrested Braddock Mayor John K. Fetterman Monday morning after he refused to leave the U.S. Steel Tower, Downtown, where he was holding a sign asking UPMC to open an urgent care center in Braddock.
Mr. Fetterman, 41, was charged with defiant trespassing, a misdemeanor, according to the complaint supporting his arrest.
UPMC closed its hospital in Braddock earlier this year, a move that spurred numerous protests by residents.
"I did this in the attempts to start a hopeful dialogue," Mr. Fetterman said Monday night. "... It's not too late to do the right thing for everybody here."
Mr. Fetterman said he entered the lobby of the building -- where UPMC is headquartered -- holding a sign that said "Please UPMC open an urgent care center like the one in Shadyside." He said he had received no reply from UPMC officials to his previous attempts to set up a meeting via e-mails.
The criminal complaint said security guards at 600 Grant St. called police at 10:20 because Mr. Fetterman refused to leave.
A police officer found Mr. Fetterman on the plaza next to the entrance and told him he was on private property. Mr. Fetterman refused to move to the sidewalk and was arrested, the complaint said. He was released at the scene. "[He] was very cooperative and left without further incident," the officer wrote.
Mr. Fetterman, who acted alone, said his action wasn't meant as an act of protest but was a call for UPMC to build an urgent care center in Braddock.
"In Shadyside ... it's a literal embarrassment of riches," Mr. Fetterman said of the neighborhood where UPMC opened an urgent care center earlier this year. "If you take our hospital away, please leave us with something on par that will give our residents the health care they need."
Mr. Fetterman hoped the move would get him a meeting with a UPMC official because he had been dissatisfied with the services the system had funded since closing UPMC Braddock, he said.
Save Our Community Hospitals, a group that rallied against the closure of UPMC Braddock, released a statement Monday night supporting Mr. Fetterman for taking a stand but chastising him for not doing so earlier.
"The Save Our Community Hospitals organization welcomes the action of Braddock Mayor John Fetterman [Monday] at UPMC headquarters," the statement read. "Unfortunately, Mr. Fetterman's concern about the lack of emergency care in Braddock comes too late."
First Published November 30, 2010 12:00 am
