DA no longer seeking death penalty against suspect in killing of officer
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office will no longer seek the death penalty against a man accused in the killing of an off-duty Pittsburgh police officer in 2019, court records show.
Records for Christen Bey, who is set to go to trial next month in connection with the fatal shooting of Officer Calvin Hall, show the DA’s office filed notice Wednesday that it was withdrawing its intention to seek the death penalty.
Jury selection in the case is set to begin Feb. 27, with the trial scheduled to begin March 14. Records show 12 days have been set aside for the trial.
District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. could not be reached for comment.
Bey, 34, is accused of shooting Hall during an argument at a party in Homewood on July 14. Hall, 36, died three days later.
Charges were filed against Bey July 22, but the criminal complaint remained under seal until late August.
According to the criminal complaint, Hall was at a block party July 13, 2019, on Monticello Street. When he tried to leave, investigators wrote, an intoxicated woman sat down in the road and blocked his path.
Hall got out to try to get the woman to move, at which point Bey began to argue with Hall. Witnesses told investigators Hall was ultimately able to leave. Later, however, an argument broke out among some partygoers, and Hall’s cousin called him to come back and help settle the dispute.
According to the complaint, Hall returned and asked the women involved in the dispute what was going on, at which point he was pulled into the argument. Hall walked away but then returned “in an attempt to apologize to the women in the event that he had offended anyone because of the misunderstanding,” detectives wrote.
Witnesses told police that Bey walked up behind Hall and started shooting, saying it seemed he “specifically targeted” Hall, according to the complaint.
Hall’s cousin told the Post-Gazette at the time that he tried to mediate the conflict but three shots were fired and Hall fell to the ground.
Witnesses identified Bey on surveillance footage from near the scene, police said.
Police recovered three .45-caliber casings and one spent bullet at the crime scene. One witness told police he previously saw Bey with a large .45-caliber gun on New Year’s Eve, the complaint said.
The casings collected at the scene matched a round found in a gun recovered by a police dog the next afternoon in the rear of 7340 Hermitage St. near Fletcher Way. It was a half block from the shooting, and the gun’s hammer was cocked, according to the complaint.