$1M bail for Lancaster police shooting demonstrators
Thirteen people who are accusedofcommittingcrimes while participating in a civil disturbance in Lancaster on Sunday night sat behind bars Tuesday, with bail for seven of them set at $1 million.
The eight for whom charging documents have beenmadepublicareaccused of being instigators during demonstrationsover the fatal police shooting of an armed man. Authoritiessaidprotests degenerated into rioting that damaged Lancaster’s police headquarters and produced an arson fire that blocked a downtown intersection.
Police in Lancaster, a diverse city of nearly60,000 in the heart of Pennsylvania Amishcountry, said Tuesday that they arrested five others on similar charges, a group thatwasawaitingarraignment and to have bail set. The 13 defendants range from16 to 43 years old and live in Lancaster and surroundingcommunities, as well as in York, CampHill andMercersburg.
Amongthe eight forwhom
charging documents were available, not all face identical charges, accusations that include arson, rioting and institutional vandalism. One has been charged with carrying a concealedweapon without a permit.
The father of Kathryn Patterson, 20, astudent atFranklin& MarshallCollege in Lancaster, said shewas acting as a medic, as she has at other protests in the recent past.
ChipPatterson called KathrynPatterson’s$1 millionbail, set by a magisterial district justice, “obscene.”
“Everything that I knowso far, which is not a lot, indicates that Kat is not guilty of thosecharges. Butthenagain, we’ll have to wait and see,” said Chip Patterson.
He said he has not been able to reach his daughter since her arrest.
“I cannot tell you how long this night has been,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I think regardless of what these people did or didn’tdo, the bailamount is just outrageous and clearly against the Eighth Amendment,” which addresses bail.