Trial begins for man accused of killing cop

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Westmoreland County man flew into a rage when his girlfriend woke him up one Saturday night in 2015, attacked her and then fatally shot the first police officer who showed up, the local district attorney said Thursday during opening statements in the first-degree murder trial of Ray A. Shetler Jr.

Mr. Shetler, 33, sat quietly in slacks and a white collared shirt while District Attorney John Peck gave the jury an overview of the evidence against him. Mr. Shetler is accused of shooting St. Clair police Officer Lloyd E. Reed Jr., 54, in the chest with a hunting rifle on Nov. 28, 2015.

Mr. Shetler faces the death penalty if convicted in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court.

Mr. Peck told jurors that Mr. Shetler’s girlfriend, Kristin Luther, called police shortly after 9 p.m. and reported that Mr. Shetler had assaulted her, her nose was bleeding and she wanted him out of her Ligonier Street house in New Florence.

In a 911 call played in court Thursday, she is heard screaming at him to get out; he is heard shouting back at her. The call fell into the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania State Police, but the nearest trooper was 23 miles away, so Officer Reed was dispatched from nearby St. Clair.

He parked down the street and approached the house on foot.

On the 911 tape, Ms. Shetler’s girlfriend becomes frantic.

“Oh, my God, they’re going to [expletive] shoot him,” she screams.

And then, a moment later: “Oh, my God, oh, my God ... officer is shot!”

She becomes hysterical, and the call ends.

Mr. Shetler ran from the scene, ditched the hunting rifle under a pile of leaves and was arrested about six hours later when a security manager at a nearby plant spotted him walking along a fence, Mr. Peck said.

“This case will be about the reality of being a police officer,” Mr. Peck told the jury. “A reality that is all too tragic in this case. Every day a police officer, whether a man or a woman, says goodbye to his or her family with the reality that he or she may not return, never to see his or her family again.”

Attorney Marc Daffner, who is representing Mr. Shetler, said he does not plan to dispute much of the evidence presented by prosecutors — but he argued that Mr.