Pennsylvania police officer charged​ with voluntary manslaughter after fatally shooting student at wrong home

An Upper Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, police officer has been charged with voluntary manslaughter after allegedly shooting and killing a college student who was at the wrong house.

Upper Pottsgrove Police Cpl. Sean Farrell was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Glenwood Earl Pysher IV on Aug. 23, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said Tuesday.  

Officials said Pysher knocked on the door of the wrong home after being out at a bar with friends. What followed was a quick interaction with Farrell and a shooting that Steele said was not justified. 

“This is not a legal use of lethal force,” Steele said.

Steele said Pysher was out at a bar early on Aug. 23 before deciding to walk to a friend’s house. But he knocked on the wrong door, leading the homeowners to report a break-in. According to a criminal complaint, Pysher had sent his friends a picture of the house he was at, and they realized he was in the wrong place, so he then sent them his location so they could come get him. 

Before Pysher’s friends arrived, Farrell showed up and found Pysher on a back patio, the complaint said. Officials said Pysher was unarmed. Farrell was equipped with a taser and a baton, but went straight to his pistol, according to Steele and the criminal complaint.

Steele said body camera video shows Farrell gave Pysher commands to put his hands up and drop to the ground. Body camera video showed Pysher putting his hands up and walking toward Farrell, according to a criminal complaint.

Farrell told Pysher to get down two more times and then yelled, “stoр or I’ll-” but shot Pysher twice before finishing his sentence, the criminal complaint said. Pysher was about 17-20 feet away from Farrell at the time, the complaint said.

According to the criminal complaint, body camera video shows Farrell later telling another officer, “The guy f***ing charged me, screaming and yelling and wouldn’t get down on the ground.”

But Steele said that’s not what they saw when they reviewed the video.

“The young man has his hands up. He does not have a weapon. He did not charge or act aggressively. He was not a threat to the homeowners. He was inebriated but listening to commands about putting his hands up,” Steele said. “He’s not trying to escape or didn’t commit a forcible felony.” 

The complaint also noted, “Farrell was a safe distance from Pysher, behind cover, as Pysher approached him with his hands in the air,” alleging that “Corporal Farrell unreasonably used deadly force without any consideration of using less lethal means against Pysher.”

CBS News spoke with Pysher’s parents last week. They described their son as a good kid loved by his community. He was set to start at Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey this week. Pysher’s funeral was held Monday.

“They are trying very hard to understand why this happened, and why their son was taken away from them,” Steele said.

Farrell turned himself in to Montgomery County detectives Tuesday. He was slated to be arraigned later Tuesday evening. Farrell’s bail was set at $75,000 and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10.  

Ken Fulginiti, an attorney representing the Pysher family, said many questions remain about the shooting, but they’re determined to get answers.

“This seems like it was a totally innocuous, pedestrian nothing and it somehow resulted in the murder of a 22-year-old son, brother, grandson,” Fulginiti said. “The family is very interested to make sure there is justice.”