Man dies after being shot by Pennsylvania State Police troopers who were serving warrant
A man who was shot Friday morning in the city of Washington by Pennsylvania State Police troopers who were serving a warrant has died.
State police said in a press release that they arrived at a home along Oak Street around 6:30 a.m. to serve a search warrant for an investigation involving the possession of child pornography.
Troopers were allowed into the residence and made contact with a man, later identified as 26-year-old Darion Thompson, in an upstairs bedroom, who, they say, brandished a firearm.
Verbal commands were made to Thompson to drop the gun, but he did not comply, prompting a trooper to fire one round from their weapon, police said.
Thompson was taken to a Pittsburgh-area hospital. He was pronounced deceased just before 3 p.m. Friday, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office.
City of Washington Mayor JoJo Burgess is cousins with the man who was shot and said the family is emotional.
"This is a person that is not even able to leave the house. So for this to be the outcome, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered very quickly," Burgess said.
He said his cousin is in his 20s with mental and physical disabilities and is deaf. His cousin is known to police, and no prior interactions had risen to this point. It's unclear if the troopers who responded were told that he was deaf.
"We have a situation where somebody has been shot, and it probably was unnecessary," Burgess said. "We need answers because this should not have happened."
Family and friends at the scene on Friday were unhappy with troopers throughout the day and several times yelled their frustration at police for how the situation unfolded.
"Something was missed. This should not have happened. We need to have those answers to what it was," Burgess said.
During the investigation, KDKA-TV's crew saw state police entering and leaving the home, taking photos and taking bags from the residence.
Burgess hopes there is a thorough investigation and review of what happened. He said the City of Washington Police Department was not alerted to the search warrant being executed.
