Jackson Township Man Dies after PSP Troopers were forced to shoot him
JACKSON TOWNSHIP: 10:04 am PA State Police responded to a report of a suicidal man standing in a driveway of a house at 329 Pennbrook Rd in Jackson Township brandishing a gun.
PSP Troopers arrived at the scene to find Larry Pettiford (69) standing in the driveway with a gun and verbally ordered Mr. Pettiford to drop the gun, he did not follow the Troopers command instead he fired the gun into the directions of the Troopers and they returned fire striking Mr. Pettiford in the chest.
Once Mr. Pettiford was secured by the Troopers they had the Crew from St. Luke's EMS that was staging nearby come into the scene to provide him with medical care.
St. Luke's EMS Paramedics called for an Air Medical Helicopter to transport Mr. Pettiford to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown where he was pronounced dead.
The Monroe County District Attorney's Office and PA State Police will continue to investigate the Incident.
Suicide by cop. He achieved his goal. Very sad. Being that it was his known intent, was it not possible to shoot only to disable & disarm the man? I understand his firing a weapon put the officers in danger and am not discounting that; however, my first thought was shoot to disarm. What was theirs?
You shoot to stop the threat. That mean shooting at the center of the target. If they shoot to injure they could miss or not disable the shooter sufficiently to end the threat to others and the officers.
TB is correct. The officers are trained just as armed citizens are trained to fire center mass to stop the threat. It sucks but he fired first and that changed the whole scene. I feel for both the officer(s) and the distraught man