Prominent local activist Lorenzo Rulli was arrested late Friday evening, near the Point Breeze home of Mayor Bill Peduto.
Rulli, whose legal name is Shawn Green, was charged with three misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct, obstructing the administration of the law, and possession of an instrument of crime—a megaphone. Rulli, speaking through the megaphone out of the window of his car, called on Peduto to resign while also shouting profanities.
After multiple police cars surrounded him, Rulli refused to come out of his car. On his livestream, he swore at officers and said he believed they would kill him. Attorney Paul Jubas and Brandi Fisher, the executive director of the Alliance for Police Accountability, negotiated an agreement that they would accompany him to Allegheny County Jail.
Rulli has become well-known for his local protests, including multiple ones this week in front of the home of Peduto. An attempted conversation between Peduto and other protesters on Wednesday night quickly broke down. After police declared the remaining protesters an “unlawful assembly,” they pushed the group back to Mellon Park where a confrontation ended with police arresting one person and using pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
Rulli was previously arrested in July and charged with 14 offenses, including allegedly encouraging an attack on a TV news cameraman, harassing another, and jumping on a vehicle while protesting a Downtown bar.
