A 31-year-old man ended up with broken ribs, a broken eye socket, and bleeding in his brain after Pittsburgh police officers arrested him Downtown this week, and now the city's public safety department and an independent review board are both scrutinizing how officers handled the encounter. Roy Cosby was hospitalized following the arrest near Fifth Avenue and Wood Street just after 5:30 p.m. on Monday, according to his family.
Pittsburgh Public Safety is reviewing an officer's use of force in the arrest, as reported by WPXI. Cosby's sister, Camri Cosby, said he is now out of the hospital and recovering, but the family wants answers about what led officers to use the level of force that left him injured.
According to the station's account, the trouble started when Cosby became upset after a bus he'd been waiting for passed his stop. He ran to the next stop and boarded the bus there, but the driver told him to get off. Camri Cosby said there was no real conflict between her brother and the driver.
Off-Duty Officers Called In From a Bank Detail
Two Pittsburgh police officers who were working an off-duty assignment at PNC Bank responded to help Pittsburgh Regional Transit police with a man reportedly causing a disturbance on the bus, per public safety's account relayed in the same report. Regional transit disturbances fall under the primary jurisdiction of the Pittsburgh Regional Transit Police Department, which routinely calls on nearby municipal officers for help with incidents on public buses, according to WPXI.
The officers removed Cosby from the bus. Officials say he cursed loudly and refused to leave the area, and officers then took him into custody and used force during the arrest.
Ella Plummer, who witnessed the incident, began recording shortly after an officer made physical contact with Cosby. She said an officer punched Cosby in the face, leaving his eye black, swollen, and bleeding. Plummer said Cosby was not resisting and believes the force used against him was unnecessary.
A Scene Steps From a Police Substation
The arrest unfolded almost directly outside a PNC Bank branch near Fifth Avenue and Wood Street — the same intersection where the city opened a two-story Downtown Public Safety Center and police substation in February 2024. That facility, staffed by a dedicated unit of 20 officers in space provided within a PNC-owned building, was created specifically to boost officer foot and bike patrols around the central business district and the PNC bank corridor, according to CBS News.
Officers released Cosby shortly after the arrest and took him to a hospital. As of Tuesday night, the two officers involved had not been placed on leave.
The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police's procedural manual, as of July 2026, mandates that officers use de-escalation techniques when safe and feasible to gain voluntary compliance before resorting to physical force, and requires comprehensive reporting whenever force is deployed, per city policy documents. Any review of the officers' conduct will likely be measured against that standard, as well as against Pennsylvania's statutory defense for officers under 18 Pa.C.S. § 508, which shields the use of force during an arrest when it is objectively reasonable and believed necessary to make the arrest or prevent bodily harm, according to a memorandum from the Bucks County District Attorney's office.
Review Board Has Power to Compel Testimony
The Citizen Police Review Board said it is very concerned about the use of force in Cosby's arrest and has opened its own inquiry. The board's authority is not symbolic — Pittsburgh voters approved a Home Rule Charter amendment in November 2020 by a 78% majority that expanded the board's power to subpoena officers and compel their participation in misconduct inquiries, according to Ballotpedia.
A sworn complaint filed within six months can start a process that may lead to a public hearing.
Cosby's family is demanding accountability and consequences for the officer's use of force. The case echoes a lawsuit Hoodline covered in March, in which a 24-year-old autistic man was tased and injured on a West End porch in February 2024 before being released without charges — another instance in which city officers faced scrutiny over force against someone ultimately not charged with a crime.
