Incident details
- Date of incident
- May 30, 2020
- Location
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Targets
- Ian Smith (KDKA-TV)
- Assailant
- Private individual
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
- Equipment broken
- Actor
- Private individual
Equipment Damage
Photojournalist Ian Smith shows some of his wounds on Twitter after being attacked by protesters in Pittsburgh on May 30.
Pennsylvania man sentenced for attack on photojournalist
A man who joined the crowd attacking KDKA-TV photojournalist Ian Smith in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest was sentenced on June 22, 2021, to jail time and probation, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Smith was documenting a protest on May 30, 2020, in response to the murder of George Floyd, and continued to follow groups of people after the organized, peaceful demonstration ended, he told the Tracker at the time.
He was filming a police car that had been set on fire when multiple people approached him and began to punch and kick him, pulling his camera from him and smashing it on the ground.
Smith was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a mild concussion, Trib Total Media reported. Smith told the outlet he had bruising all over his chest and face and deep lacerations on his knees and thumb. He later suffered headaches and panic attacks that his therapist attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jordan Erdos was arrested a month later and admitted to having kicked Smith, KDKA reported. He pleaded guilty to assault, rioting, reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct and was sentenced in June 2021 to six to 13 months in jail and two years of probation, and no contact with Smith.
At the sentencing hearing, Erdos said, “I just wanted to apologize to Mr. Smith and his family and the courts and hope you guys could give me one more chance,” Trib Total Media reported. His attorney told the court that the 21-year-old “lacked the maturity to counter social pressures from the mob mentality.”
Smith told the station, in a report that includes video of the assault, that although Erdos wasn’t the only participant in the attack, “I think justice was served. His apology, I’m not sure what I feel about that at the moment, but I think justice was served.”
Erdos was paroled to home confinement in September.
Ian Smith, a photojournalist for CBS News affiliate KDKA-TV, was attacked by protesters while covering unrest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 30, 2020.
Protests in Pittsburgh occurred as demonstrations that started in Minnesota on May 26 spread across the country. The protests were sparked by video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Smith, who has worked for KDKA-TV for 15 years, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was following groups of protesters near the PPG Paints Arena, a hockey arena, after an organized, peaceful demonstration ended.
He said he was near a police car that had been set on fire when multiple protesters yelled at him that he wasn’t allowed to film. As he started to move away to try to film from a different spot, he said he felt multiple people pull on his camera. After he lost his balance and fell to the ground, a group of people — he estimated between four and six — began punching and kicking him, while others were nearby. He said he heard them chant, “Kill him, kill him.”
Smith said his attackers took his camera and “smashed it into 1,000 pieces.”
Another group of protesters intervened, forming a wall around Smith to protect him, then helping him to outside the nearby arena where there was a medic, he said. Those demonstrators told him the attackers were not a part of their group. Smith said he found out later he was helped to a safer area by the CEO of the Pittsburgh Penguins, confirmed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Smith was taken by ambulance to a hospital, evaluated and later released. He said he was struck several times in the head and sustained bruises and scrapes on his face, arms and legs.
KDKA-TV reporter Paul Martino, who was covering the protests with Smith, wrote in a Facebook post that demonstrators threatened him as he tried to approach Smith during the attack. He was hospitalized after the incident with severe chest pains.
A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Police Department said police were aware of the incident, and said the department does not discuss ongoing investigations.
Smith said he was grateful to the people who had stepped in to protect him.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases here.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].