Harrisburg teen shot by police was unarmed, DA’s office says
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/06/harrisburg_shooting_victim_was.html
The 17-year-old boy shot in the face by police Wednesday night in an uptown Harrisburg neighborhood was not armed when he was shot, Dauphin County Assistant District Attorney Fran Chardo has confirmed.
The boy, identified by family members as Leonard D. Howze, is unconscious in a hospital bed, with a bullet lodged near the top of his spine. A cousin reports Howze is paralyzed and fighting for his life. An attorney representing Howze family, Spiro Lappas, of Harrisburg, could not confirm that report, saying just that Howze is in critical but stable condition
Chardo said he is investigating whether or not the officer who shot Howze was justified in using deadly force. “We have not completed our evaluation yet into whether the shooting was justified,” said Chardo. “The question is going to be did he believe it was necessary to use force to prevent death or serious bodily injury to himself or another.”
According to reports, Howze and three other males were riding in a car that matched the description of a vehicle believed to have been involved a shooting in the 500 block of Woodbine Street, where someone pumped several shots into a home occupied by an elderly couple and their 11-year-old grandson. When police tried to stop the car, one person fled on foot while the other three took off in the car, with Howze’s older brother, Lamar, 18, at the wheel, police said.
After the car was stopped, the three occupants ran from the scene. Lamar Howze and a passenger, William L. Pierce Jr., 24, were apprehended a short distance away, police said, and both face drug and escape charges. Another occupant, Anthony B. Arrington, 22, faces gun charges.
According to Chardo, the officer who fired the shot told investigators Leonard Howze ran directly at him and ignored repeated orders to stop. The officer said he was backed up against the car with no place to escape Howze’s charge.
