Prosecutor: Fatal state police shooting justified

Pennsylvania state troopers were justified when they shot and killed a distraught 19-year-old man who had brandished a pellet gun at them on an overpass in the Pocono Mountains, a district attorney said Tuesday as authorities released video of the fatal encounter.

Troopers went to the Route 33 overpass over Interstate 80 on Dec. 30 in response to a report of a suicidal man and found Christian Joseph Hall standing on the ledge, authorities said.

Troopers spent about 90 minutes trying to persuade Hall to give up and drop the weapon, saying “we are here to help you” and offering him food, drink and a blanket. But he approached them while brandishing the pellet gun and they opened fire, said Michael Mancuso, first assistant district attorney in Monroe County.

“Frankly I’m astounded that they let him get so close with the threat he was presenting. It was clearly the last thing they wanted to do, was to open fire on him,” Mancuso said. “It was a classic ‘suicide by cop’ scenario.”

Hall himself had called 911 anonymously to report a possibly suicidal man on the bridge, Mancuso said.

Hall’s family has criticized police for the fatal shooting, saying he was in the throes of a mental health crisis.

“He needed help. He was looking for help but instead of getting help he was killed by those who were supposed to help him,” Fe Hall, his mother, said at a recent news conference.

The shooting prompted a march in Stroudsburg earlier this month, and the local chapter of the NAACP had called the death of Hall — who, according to his family’s attorney, was Chinese American — avoidable.

“We still believe there are solutions available that do not result in the loss of life in certain circumstances and are saddened by what we saw today,” Christa Caceres, president of the Monroe County NAACP, said in a statement Tuesday.