PITTSBURGH — The third and final white Pittsburgh officer to testify in a young black man’s civil rights lawsuit on Tuesday issued the strongest denial yet that police wrongly arrested and beat the performing arts student.

“I am not ashamed of anything that happened that night,” Officer Richard Ewing testified about Jan. 12, 2010, when then-18-year-old Jordan Miles encountered the officers at about 11 p.m.

“I’m proud of what we do. I’m proud to be a police officer, and I know I didn’t do anything that they’re suggesting that I did,” Ewing said.

Ewing flatly denied Miles’ claims that officers stopped him merely for being black in a high-crime area, then beat him after he panicked, ran away and resisted — elbowing Officer Michael Saldutte’s head and kicking Officer David Sisak’s knee. Miles, now 20, said he fought because the officers didn’t identify themselves and he thought he was being robbed.

Miles also contends that a handful of braids were torn from his head and that after being handcuffed he was choked and told to shut up when he prayed in fear. The officers then hit him in the head with a hard object for good measure, Miles has said.

“Absolutely not. It never happened,” Ewing said when asked if those things occurred. “He never prayed at all during that incident. Never.”

Instead, Ewing echoed the other officers’ claims that Miles appeared to be prowling near a neighbor’s home and had a bulge in his coat that made the officers think he had a weapon when he moved to conceal it.

The officers later found only a soda bottle, though Miles denies having even that. His attorneys contend that he was the target of a “jump out” — a tactic in which officers rush at suspected drug dealers or other suspicious people to get them off their guard — that went horribly wrong.