Thread by @pleasesaveour

@PAAttorneyGen What?

In Nov 2008 PA Trooper Jay Splain was honored at a county LE banquet as a hero, the officer of the year. The reason: He had shot and killed a suicidal man who allegedly pointed an Uzi submachine gun at him

That was the first killing
nytimes.com/2021/12/30/us/…

Splain went on to fatally shoot 3 more in separate incidents, an extraordinary tally for an officer resp for patrolling largely rural areas with low rates of violent crime. All 4 who died were troubled, struggling with drugs, mental illness or both. In two cases, incl that of the

man with the Uzi, family members had called the police for help because their relatives had threatened to kill themselves.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The most recent death was last month, when Trooper Splain shot an unarmed man in his car

In the PA State Trooper agency’s more than a century of policing, no officer has ever been prosecuted for fatally shooting someone

In its review of Splain’s killings, The NYT found inconsistencies between the evidence of what occurred and what the state police said had happened. The officer appeared to have departed from police protocols in several of the fatal confrontations

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The latest shooting lawsuit by the family:
#CharityThome
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

In three of the encounters, the people killed were in vehicles. The trooper shot two unarmed drivers because they were allegedly using their vehicles as weapons, a frequent rationale

Lebanon County DA Pier Hess Graf said the shooting of Ms. Thome by Trooper #JaySplain and a rookie trooper was justified. She also said officers feared that Ms. Thome’s vehicle posed a danger to them or to other officers.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Weeks after a citizens advisory committee issued recomson how PA should address police-involved shootings, an investigative report focusing on a state trooper who has been involved in four fatal shootings.

pennlive.com/news/2021/12/p…