Pittsburgh councilman urges closure of South Side bar after fight injures sergeant

A Pittsburgh city councilman called for closure of a South Side bar after a fight over the weekend left a police sergeant with a gruesome leg injury.

Oddballs on the 1500 block of East Carson Street became the scene of a melee early Saturday morning, leaving Pittsburgh Sgt. Andrew Robinson, who leads the South Side entertainment patrol, with a broken leg.

Pittsburgh City Councilman Bob Charland, D-South Side, on Tuesday said Oddballs should be closed down.

“We’ll be working to make sure this bar cannot operate on the South Side anymore because they cannot make this establishment safe,” Charland said, urging the district attorney’s office and liquor control officers to shut down the bar.

In a statement released Tuesday, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said that the incident at Oddballs is under review by detectives assigned to the Nuisance Bar Task Force.

Those detectives met with the owners and Liquor Control Enforcement on Monday, he said.

“The discussion of taking away a business’s ability to operate is a very serious subject,” Zappala said. “We will be prepared to have that conversation if needed.”

The district attorney said he intends to meet with a group of South Side merchants as soon as this week.

Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, echoed Charland’s plea for Oddballs to be closed.

While he condemned the weekend’s violence, Coghill said he believes Robinson and others have made strides towards making the area safer generally.

“I don’t think it’s indicative of the progress that’s been made down there in the last year or so,” he said.

Charland lauded Robinson’s efforts on South Side to make the bustling entertainment district safer.

“Sgt. Robinson is the exact embodiment of what we want to see in a community officer,” he said, adding that Robinson knew many business owners, residents and regular patrons. “The success in increasing the safety in South Side is in large part due to Sgt. Robinson. Having him out for the foreseeable future is going to be a big loss for South Side.”