Pennsylvania police officer charged in fatal shooting of student who went to wrong house
A Pennsylvania police officer has been charged with voluntary manslaughter stemming from the fatal shooting this month of a college student whose parents said he was mistaken for a burglar after knocking on the door of a residence he wrongly thought was a friend's house, authorities said.
Cpl. Sean Farrell, a veteran member of the Upper Pottsgrove Township Police Department, was charged in the Aug. 23 death of Glenwood "Bubba" Pysher, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele announced at a news conference Tuesday.
Steele said he is "obligated under the law" to charge Farrell, who allegedly shot Pysher twice after responding to a 911 call from a homeowner reporting a break-in in progress.
"At the time these two fatal shots were fired, Mr. Pysher had his hands up," Steele said, citing footage from Farrell's body-worn camera. "He had no weapon. He did not charge the officer or act aggressively in any way. He was not a threat to the homeowners who were inside their residence."
Steele further said that the body-worn camera video, which he did not play but from which he released a still image, showed Farrell claim to a colleague after the shooting that Pysher “charged” him while “screaming and yelling.”
“The body-worn camera video does not depict Pysher charging and does not depict yelling or screaming prior to the shooting,” Steele said.
Pysher's parents told ABC News last week that before the shooting, their son had been out bar-hopping with a group celebrating a friend's 21st birthday.
Pysher's mother, Erin Pysher, said that when the group decided to move the celebration to a friend's house, her son walked to what he wrongly thought was the correct address.
"He was walking down the road to what he thought was his friend's house. And after some drinks, he ended up walking in the dark at night. I guess he got mixed up, and he made a wrong turn and went to the wrong house," Erin Pysher said in a phone interview with ABC News.
Pysher said her son was a student at Saint Elizabeth University in Morris Township, New Jersey, and was expected to begin the new school year last week.
Steele said on Tuesday that while Pysher was apparently inebriated, he was complying with Farrell's orders to put his hands up when he was shot.
"He was not trying to escape and he did not commit a forcible felony. This is not a legal use of lethal force under Pennsylvania law," Steele said.
Farrell is being arraigned on the voluntary manslaughter charge Tuesday, according to Steele.
