Report: FBI Considers Investigation of Taser Incident Involving Ross Township Man

The FBI is considering whether to open a civil-rights investigation into the actions of a Pittsburgh Police Detective who confronted a Ross Township man outside a South Side bar Saturday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 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.)

"When anything attracts our attention that could potentially violate any civil rights of the public, or of anyone in the community, we assess the situation," FBI spokeswoman Kelly Kochamba told the Post-Gazette.

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. 

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl suggested Monday that Rende be fired, but he remains on the job at the bureau's anti-graffiti squad, the P-G reported.

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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