Wilson was one of the organizers of the protest targeting police brutality called after the killings by cops of Charles Dixon, Bernard Rogers, and 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe--all Black males--in separate incidents in November and December.

Following the rally and despite the freezing cold, participants marched through the business district of Mt. Oliver, a small borough that is encircled by Pittsburgh. Drivers beeped their horns in support as the marchers circled around the route twice.

The protest route included the scene of Dixon’s killing. He died after being assaulted by cops December 21 at a birthday party at a Mt. Oliver hall. Witnesses said the police beat Dixon, handcuffed him on the floor, and then used pepper spray. He died two days later without having regained consciousness.

Under pressure the police department has admitted that up to eight cops were involved in subduing the man, and that they had used the suffocating and painful spray.

Following Dixon’s death, however, the local county police superintendent said, "everything was done according to the book." He claimed that "there’s no racial issue between my officers and people on the street" and that there have been no allegations of racism or police brutality in the past seven years.

Members of Dixon’s family spoke at the rally, along with Tim Stevens, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP, and Sala Udin, a Pittsburgh city council member. Speakers described other fights against police brutality. Among those who addressed the crowd were the widow of a man shot by police and a local boxer who had been beaten and framed up.

Leading up to the rally and march, planning meetings were organized in a number of Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including St. Clair Village, Hill District, Knoxville, Homewood, and East Liberty.

The rally and protest also exposed and protested ongoing harassment and brutality by Mt. Oliver cops.

Greg Trent, one of the pastors who spoke, told the rally how his sons were detained and beaten by the local cops. A woman who had been recently laid off by US Airways described being assaulted and jailed after a minor traffic accident.

Many participants, both Black and white, related incidents of harassment and brutality to this reporter.  
 
Michael Ellerbe shot in the back
Other killings have occurred elsewhere in Pittsburgh. On December 24, 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe was shot through the heart from behind in broad daylight by state police in Uniontown, 45 miles southeast of the city in the southwestern Pennsylvania coalfields. Police allege that at the time Ellerbe was at the wheel of a stolen vehicle. He died in an alley.

The lawyer for the Ellerbe family, Geoffrey Fieger, said, "I think it’s a cover-up. Nothing precipitated it. I think it’s a deliberate act that is absolutely unexplainable and undefendable ... I don’t think this would happen to a white child ... Since when do you start shooting a suspected car thief in the back?"

The Fayette County NAACP chapter has called for Black representation at the coroner’s inquest.

Citing an ongoing investigation, the state police have not released details of the case, and have refused to acknowledge whether it was a bullet from a trooper’s gun that killed Ellerbe. They have also declined to discuss their policy on the use of force.

On November 15 Bernard Rogers died at the hands of Housing Authority cops in the Bedford Dwellings in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. The cops who shot Rogers claimed that they acted after a struggle over one of their guns.

Witnesses reported that Rogers was shot while running downstairs to get away. Rogers’s mother, Joyce Rogers, told reporters, "I believe they murdered my son and are trying to cover it up. But the body doesn’t lie." She said the coroner’s findings support the witnesses’ account that Rogers was shot from above.

The inquest has brought into the spotlight a practice of the Housing Authority cops called "knock and talk," in which cops approach visitors to the housing complexes or knock on doors of tenants when they suspect criminal activity. In the November shooting, witnesses testified that cops identified themselves only as "housing" when they entered the apartment.

Inquests on the Ellerbe and Dixon deaths are set for January 29 and February 12 respectively. The inquest into Bernard Rogers’s killing has already begun. The FBI has agreed to investigate all three deaths.

Speaking at the January 20 rally in Mt. Oliver, Renee Wilson vowed that opponents of the police actions "will attend every legal proceeding" in the killings, "will picket police stations where there’s evidence of abuse, will march around the courthouse, will march on downtown and Uniontown, and will organize meetings in every area."  
 
 
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