More Than 60 Charges Filed Against Man In Parkway East Rampage
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- More than 60 charges have been filed against a man after Sunday's incident on the Parkway East, and this isn't his first run-in with police.
Charlie Badawy is a grad student at the University of Pittsburgh, but Sunday afternoon, he acted as a hero.
"I pulled over because it seemed like there were two kind of older individuals who were really being verbally and potentially physically threatened by a younger male," Badawy said.
Badawy saw 24-year-old Daron Bivins arguing with a man who was in a car waiting for emergency road service on the side of the Parkway East.
"He's kind of saying, 'I'm crazy. I'm sick,'" Badawy said, "and then saying, he was kind of accusing us of having a weapon or a gun."
But police say it was Bivins who used a screwdriver as his weapon.
"He tried taking something from my trunk. I say, 'What are you doing? This is my car.' He gets mad and started attacking my mother, attacking my sister, attacking me," victim Sanchez Suarez said.
Several other passersby tried to intervene, but Bivins threatened them with physical harm, too. He left behind a string of broken windshields and windows. He even threw a brick into a PennDOT truck's windshield.
Badawy thought twice about getting too involved in the situation, but when he saw Bivins using a screwdriver like a knife, he didn't think he had any other choice.
"I saw them get entangled. I saw the screwdriver go to stab, kind of, twice, and that's when I grabbed him, threw him off, and then physically engaged with him, took him down and restrained him until police arrived," he said.
It turns out Bivins has a lengthy criminal record, including pleading guilty to making terroristic threats and simple assault. Court paperwork indicates he was ordered to anger management and to take medication.
The reason behind the attack isn't clear. Bivins was taken to the Allegheny County Jail. He faces 62 charges, including felony counts of aggravated assault.