DID SOMEONE SAY SHOPLIFTING IS A NONVIOLENT CRIME?

Masked Shoplifter Killed After Firing at Pennsylvania State Trooper

By Frank Warner and Manuel Gamiz Jr.

The Allentown Morning Call
March 30, 2018

LOWER MACUNGIE TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania -- A state police trooper working his first week at the Fogelsville barracks was dispatched Wednesday evening to the Walmart in Lower Macungie Township on a shoplifting call and spotted a suspect right away — a man wearing a type of mask seen in horror movies while pushing a full shopping cart.

After seeing the trooper, the masked man ditched the cart and ran out the side entrance of the store, passing bewildered customers and employees as he headed to the parking lot.

Moments later, the man pulled a gun and fired “one shot” at the trooper from 15 yards away, state police Capt. Richard D’Ambrosio said. The trooper fired back nine times, he said, hitting the man multiple times — he died with a .40-caliber Glock on his lap.

The shooting remains under investigation, but Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin, who assigned three detectives to help the state police’s Major Case Team, said it appears the use of force was justified.

“Based on the information that we have to this point it would appear to me preliminarily that it was a justified shooting,” Martin said at a Thursday news conference to announce details in the case.

D’Ambrosio said investigators viewed the foot chase and shooting on surveillance recordings from inside and outside the store and interviewed several witnesses, with at least two telling police they saw the man pull a gun from his waistband.

He said investigators will also review footage from the dashboard cameras of two troopers who arrived just as the shooting unfolded.

D’Ambrosio did not name the suspected shoplifter, describing him only as a Berks County man in his late 20s with a criminal history.

He said the man is believed to be the same person who pulled a gun on a Walmart employee in Schuylkill County during a similar heist while wearing a similar disguise.

D’Ambrosio said the suspect’s family was notified around 3 a.m. Thursday and he wanted to give them time to speak to extended relatives and friends before making his name public following Friday’s autopsy.

It appears the man was shot seven times, but the autopsy will determine the exact number, D’Ambrosio said. No one else was hurt in the shooting.

D’Ambrosio also didn’t identify the trooper, a four-year veteran who had worked in the Hazleton barracks and just started working in Fogelsville.

He said the trooper has been placed on administrative duties, as is protocol on all police-involved shootings. D’Ambrosio said he spoke to the trooper Thursday morning to check on his condition and “he’s obviously fired up a little, but he’s doing OK.”

The incident began at 8:50 p.m. when the masked man entered the store and began walking the aisles for 15 minutes, filling a shopping cart with items that included two gasoline cans, D’Ambrosio said.

The man's appearance — a mask and a wig — caught the attention of a loss prevention officer, who recalled an alert given to area Walmart stores after a robbery in Schuylkill County weeks earlier. D’Ambrosio described the mask as the type in the “Halloween” horror movies, but “more realistic, though.”

On March 15, a man wearing a similar mask stole $6,500 in electronics from a Walmart in Saint Clair and pulled a gun on an employee when he was confronted, police said. That man fled in a white minivan similar to the one in the Lower Macungie robbery. D’Ambrosio said police are still investigating if the two are connected, but he added that he’s “pretty sure” they are.

The loss prevention officer followed the masked man as he went up and down the aisles and phoned state police at 9:07 p.m. about the suspicious activity. The trooper arrived in two minutes.

The trooper first encountered the suspect in the vestibule of the store, D’Ambrosio said, and the trooper gave him orders to surrender both in the store and as they ran through the parking lot. During his escape attempt, the suspect was nearly hit by a passing car, but continued running and eventually pulled the black semiautomatic handgun, he said.

"He was given more than enough notice that he was being chased by the police," D’Ambrosio said.

The man got to his minivan, which was parked about 50 yards from the store, turned around and fired at the trooper, who returned fire, he said. The man managed to get in the minivan and continued to point his gun at the trooper, who fired through the van’s window and door, D’Ambrosio said. He said the trooper was able to see inside the minivan that the gunman was alone.

D’Ambrosio said two troopers arrived just as shots were being fired and police later used a ballistics shield for protection to see if they could render aid to the man, but he had died by the time they got to him.

Just before the drama unfolded, Michael Anderson, 43, of Upper Macungie Township walked out of the store with his son and daughter and passed the state police cruiser parked in the fire lane.

“They are constantly there for thefts,” Anderson said, thinking nothing of police’s being at the store.

But as he and the children walked to their car, they saw a trooper chasing a man out of the same exit they just used. Anderson could hear the trooper announcing himself and giving orders of, “Stop or I’ll tase you,” all the way until they got to the minivan, about 30 yards from where Anderson was standing with his children.

There, he said, he heard a barrage of shots with the trooper firing from right outside the minivan. Anderson said all the shots were fired so quickly that he couldn’t tell how many were fired by the trooper or the man he was chasing.

“It honestly blended together,” he said. “I did not hear a separation.”

After the shooting, the trooper retreated to some parked cars and waited for backup, he said. Anderson said the suspect’s minivan was still running and he could see no movement from inside.

It was about 10 minutes after the shooting when troopers got to the minivan, broke out the windows and pulled the man’s body out, he said.

Anderson said he did not see the man wearing any kind of mask and described him as having long hair, a scruffy beard and looking rough, adding that “the long hair could have been a wig.”

It was about 45 minutes from the time the shooting happened until he was able to get home to his wife, who had been trying to get to him, but all the roads were shut down as police investigated.

Bob Reid and his wife were walking to the Walmart to look for a hand-mixer for Easter cookies when he said he heard a “pop, pop, pop” behind him.

“That’s gunshots,” he recalled telling his wife as they hurried into the side entrance of the Walmart.

Reid, a retired Emmaus mailman who served in the Navy, said the parking lot was soon swarmed with state police and emergency vehicles, and store officials made announcements on the loudspeaker that the store was locked down.

Emotions were high as some feared a second person may be inside, locked in a bathroom, Reid said. However, state police soon entered the store and assured everyone that the situation was under control and everyone was being evacuated from the store, he said. Troopers escorted everyone in the store to their vehicles.

At one point, during the hourlong ordeal, a female manager tried to calm Reid’s wife, but was herself overcome with emotions, Reid said.

“‘We trained for this,’” Reid said she told the couple. “‘Never in a million years would you think this would happen.’”

Witnesses say police put the man’s body in a coroner’s van about 12:25 a.m. Thursday.