Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey is speaking out after a controversial local activist posted comments on social media appearing to celebrate the shooting death of Brackenridge Police Chief Justin McIntire along with photos of her posing with Gainey.
The woman identified by the mayor as Nicky Jo Dawson called Chief McIntire a "pig" and claimed police would use it as an excuse to kill Black people.
"I don't believe in none of the comments that Nicky Jo made, I'm not there," Gainey told The Big K Morning Show. "I'm more focused on praying for this family, I can't control the actions of a Nicky Jo and nobody else or what they say."
"I didn't know about none of this until you sent it to me in the morning in regards to the statements that were made," added Gainey. "I want every cop to go home at the end of the day, I want every community to go home at the end of the day."
Gainey added he called both the mayor of Brackenridge and Tarentum and his staff reached out to Dawson to ask her to stop posting.
Those posts have been removed or taken down.
Gainey says one of his biggest goals as mayor is still to improve relations between police and communities, though he realizes it is a long process that could take years.
Gainey also knows there are some within the Pittsburgh Police Department that may feel like they can no longer trust him after the photos of him with Dawson were published.
"There's nothing I can do to respond to that, I think that my work speaks volumes," said Gainey. "If you wanna say that hey he's in the picture with her so he must think like her, what can I do to change that concept?"
"That comment that she made, it was wrong," said Gainey. "If she worked with me, she couldn't work with me anymore that's the reality because it's about public safety."
Gainey adds he's going to continue to work with police and meeting with them.
Dawson pleaded guilty to one count of arson and one count of criminal mischief after she allegedly tried to set fires at two different pizza locations downtown in 2019, Café Milano on Sixth Street and Pizza Milano on Fifth Avenue.
Dawson was sentenced last July to three years probation and with months of electronic monitoring.
