Lawyers for parents of teen fatally shot by state troopers speak out
‘This was an unjustified killing’
Monroe County prosecutors put a hand on the scales of justice in the investigation of 19-year-old Christian Hall’s shooting by state troopers, lawyers for the dead man’s family said Wednesday, calling for additional scrutiny of the state police.
The Monroe County district attorney’s office announced Tuesday that an investigation of the Dec. 30 shooting atop an Interstate 80 overpass found troopers were justified in using deadly force against Hall. It found Hall was suicidal, refused commands to come off the bridge and carried a gun that turned out to be a replica toward the officers.
Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Devon
Jacob said in a virtual news conference Wednesday that the investigation of five state police officers’ actions during the 1 ½-hour crisis was biased, lacked transparency and exposed irrelevant information that served only to disparage Hall’s memory.
“We believe that this was an unjustified killing of this Asian teenager, Christian Hall, by the state police of the state of Pennsylvania,” said Crump, who also represents the family of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police last spring set in motion an international wave of protest over the treatment of minorities by law enforcement.
The Monroe County NAACP on Tuesday said its members’ hearts are with Hall’s parents, Fe and Gareth Hall.
“For them this is a day most of us will never have to experience. They have lost their only child and must work to find peace while in the midst of immeasurable grief,” a statement from the NAACP said.
It called for changes in mental health treatment and law enforcement, and called on lawmakers, Gov. Tom Wolf and law enforcement leaders to create solutions to prevent the loss of another life.
Jacob, a former police officer and prosecutor, criticized the presentation of the investigation’s findings, saying First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso unfairly attacked Hall’s grieving parents by claiming they refused to cooperate with the investigation. Jacob said the only contact with law enforcement was at the state police barracks the night of the shooting, and a coroner’s office employee referred to the family’s lawyers never did so.
He also criticized state police Commissioner Robert Evanchick and District Attorney David Christine for not personally addressing reporters during Tuesday’s news conference.
“It is offensive rather than simply releasing the complete investigative file … the district attorney took countless hours and spent taxpayer money to produce a PowerPoint presentation that contained a filtered version of the truth,” Jacob said.
Mancuso said in an email Wednesday his office stands by the results of its investigation and that its in-depth and transparent presentation disclosed facts to replace “the false narrative cultivated by Attorney Crump and company.”
The presentation included information about Hall’s background, including his juvenile record, as part of an effort to discern his state of mind.
Jacob said the investigation improperly considered information that was unknown to troopers at the time of the crisis.
“The only information that is relevant is that which the police officers knew at the time they used the deadly force,” he said.
Jacob said he plans to file a writ of summons, a precursor to a civil lawsuit, in Monroe County Court this week to gain access to information needed to prepare a civil rights claim. The civil rights lawsuit must be filed in federal court within two years of the shooting, he said.
Jacob said the information released by the district attorney’s office reveals issues with the troopers’ training that make Jacob believe the state police has civil liability for Hall’s death.
He noted that the commands state police gave Hall were too complicated for someone in his state.
“The fact is these officers should have known not to be telling a person who is impaired both through a mental health issue and the use of marijuana to both put the weapon down and to move toward them,” Jacob said.
He also questioned why the officers didn’t make an attempt to get Hall’s cellphone number to communicate with him more easily on the loud and windy highway bridge. Jacob also noted that while the situation made using a stun gun impossible, other less-lethal measures such as bean bag rounds or rubber bullets could have been used.
“We all can agree that we can do better, we can always try to do better and hopefully there are lessons the state police can learn from this,” Jacob said.