County police release new account of fatal Wilkinsburg shooting
Added details intended to dispel ‘rumors’
Answering a call for more transparency and in an attempt to dispel some of the rumors and questions circulating around the police shooting death of 24-year-old Romir Talley in Wilkinsburg on Dec. 22, Allegheny County police on Tuesday released the most detailed account yet of what led to the man’s death.
The account, described in a news release from county police Superintendent Coleman McDonough, said the chain of events began with a 911 call at 1 a.m. on Dec. 22.
The caller said a black male with black dreadlocks and wearing a black jacket and grey sweatpants had “pulled a gun” on the caller near the intersection of Penn Avenue and Wood Street in Wilkinsburg. The caller said the man was carrying a silver handgun.
Following the call, two Wilkinsburg officers responded to the area — which is less than 100 feet from the Wilkinsburg Police Department and borough hall — riding in a marked squad car together.
They interviewed two people and spotted a man walking down the street wearing a dark jacket and dark sweatpants that matched the 911 caller’s description.
The officers pulled their squad car in front of the “walking man and could see that his hairstyle also fit the [911 caller’s] description of the person with the gun,” according to the news release.
The 911 caller, still on the phone with the 911 operator, apparently could see this interaction between the officers and the walking man, and told the 911 operator that the officers had located the man with the gun — information that was then relayed to the officers.
One of the officers directed the man to “take his hands out of his pockets” and stop.
As both officers got out of their squad car, the man fled. The two officers chased him through a vacant
lot on Penn Avenue between two buildings that led to Stoner Way, an alleyway behind the buildings.
The man ran down Stoner Way and across Center Street, then turned into a yard behind 908 Center St. “as one of the officers gained on him in the darkness,” the news release said.
The man then fired one round at the officer, who returned fire, striking the man seven times.
The news release said the entire incident — from the beginning of the foot pursuit to the exchange of gunfire — took 43 seconds, ending at 1:06 a.m.
Paramedics were called, but the man, later identified as Mr. Talley, was declared dead at the scene at 1:16 a.m.
The news release said that a silver revolver, with one spent cartridge inside the cylinder below the hammer, was found at the scene. There also were four live rounds inside the cylinder.
The release said that while the investigation continues, the new, more detailed account was based on 911 call information, officer and witness statements, and physical evidence, but does not include any information from body cameras or police dashboard cameras, which the department apparently does not use.
The new account was released “in order to clarify what is known to investigators at this time, and to address rumors and/or inaccurate information that are circulating in the Wilkinsburg community,” the news release said, without specifying the alleged “rumors” or inaccuracies.
The account from county police addresses several issues that had not been previously disclosed, including what the full description was of the man threatening a person with a gun near the intersection of Penn Avenue and Wood Street.
Some family and activists have alleged in Facebook posts and in comments to reporters that police wrongly pursued Mr. Talley because he merely “resembled” the man with a gun.
The account also addresses a concern from family and activists about whether nonuniformed Wilkinsburg police task force officers were involved in the chase.
“They don’t wear a police uniform, so you don’t know if they are police. So, did he know he was running from police? Did they identify themselves as police?” Victor Muhammad, student minister at the Minister Muhammad Mosque #22 in Wilkinsburg, said at a protest about the shooting Friday. “This unfortunately seems to be standard protocol for Allegheny County police justice.”
Some activists have also questioned whether police actually found a gun or spent cartridges allegedly fired by Mr. Talley. The news release does not address a related concern: whether the autopsy found residue on Mr. Talley’s hand that would show if he fired the weapon.
And at least one of the community activists has posted on Facebook that Mr. Talley was shot five times — once in the head, twice in the arms and twice in the legs.
While the news release does not say where Mr. Talley was shot, it does confirm he was shot multiple times.
Neither Lee Merritt nor Dan Purtell, attorneys representing the Talley family, could be reached for comment Tuesday.
The county police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the Allegheny County Police tip line at 1-833-ALLTIPS. Callers can remain anonymous, the release said, and the county can also be contacted through social media sites.
While county police are conducting the investigation, the information uncovered will be given to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office to determine if the shooting was justified.
“The Allegheny County Police Department is cognizant of and understands the desire for a transparent investigation,” the release added, “however, the goal of the ACPD investigation is to obtain accurate information. Sometimes obtaining the most accurate information takes time. When information is released prematurely in response to calls for immediate transparency, there is a danger that such premature release of information may serve to call the integrity of the investigation into question if later information, corroborated and fully vetted, appears to be different or contradictory to previously released information.”