Allegheny County DA Rules Upper St. Clair Police Shooting Justified

UPPER SAINT CLAIR, Pa. (WPXI) — Four SWAT team officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a man during a mental health crisis in Upper Saint Clair.  Chris Shepherd, 48, had a history of mental health calls when his mom called for help in January. Upper Saint Clair police had responded multiple times to the home in recent months, but in this incident he had a knife.  “That’s a knife. It’s a kitchen knife,” said District Attorney Stephen Zappala in a news conference on Friday. “The significance is this is no longer a mental health matter, it is now a police matter.”  Zappala said the SWAT team was called in when officers saw a knife in the corner of a boarded up door in the front of the home.  Multiple rounds of pepper balls were fired into the home during the four-hour standoff. When Shephard exited the home, Zappala said he could be seen with a knife in one hand and a lamp in the other hand, running down the driveway.  Zappala said the Upper St Clair Police Department handled everything correctly. He said the SWAT team could have handled the situation differently, and some ‘failures’ happened.  But ultimately, he said no crime was committed by police.  Shepherd’s family filed a civil lawsuit. They said they tried multiple times to get Christopher the help he needed leading up to the fatal shooting.