A western Pennsylvania District Attorney has declined to press charges on a white man for fatally shooting his Black co-worker. Despite the family and local civil rights organizations urging to go forward with prosecution, the DA states that he doesn’t have enough evidence to prove that the killing was not in self-defense.
District Attorney Shawn White told reporters on Tuesday, March 15, the person who shot Peter Spencer, a Jamaican immigrant who moved with his family to the United States from the island, nine times on a camping trip on Dec. 12 will not be charged with murder.
The official shared that an investigation did not produce any substantial evidence to bring forth a viable murder case.
White’s investigation found Spencer and his co-worker and the other campers on the Dec. 11 trip were having a “good time,” during their trip along the Allegheny River in Venango County.
Pictures in the phones of other campers, as well as the deceased, showed the group going off-roading and visiting a waterfall.
That was until later when the group started to build a bonfire and Spencer started doing drugs.
The DA claims Spencer was high on hallucinogenic mushrooms and started behaving erratically. The man’s toxicology report substantiates this, saying he had psilocin in his system and psilocin causes people to go on trips and endure panic attacks.
The Philadelphia Inquirer says Spencer then started to tell the other campers that he was a god.”
While he was “acting crazy,” Spencer allegedly started firing multiple rounds from an AK-47 and threatening the other people on the trip, demanding them to hand over their car keys and phones.
Spencer allegedly wanted everyone to stay put, but one woman left from his sight. This caused him to confront the co-worker. The investigators claim that at this time he pointed the rifle at the co-worker, who then pulled out his handgun and shot him dead.
He had been shot nine times, with six bullet wounds in his chest. An autopsy reports two of the nine shots entered through his back and two entered through his buttocks. Spencer was also shot in the face, but the report says that was not a lethal hit.
The co-worker maintains he blasted Spencer in self-defense. Pennsylvania State Police were called to the scene and found Spencer lying on the front lawn of the rural cabin.
“He did not have to wait for a gunshot to fire at him,” White said about the shooter. “He did not have to wait for a verbal threat.”
“We believe in this case that there is enough evidence presented for self-defense that we are not going to be able to overcome our burden and show this was not self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “And for that reason, there will be no charges filed against the suspect in this case.”
“This is my call. I believe it’s the right one,” White stated.
Spencer’s family and supporters don’t believe White’s call was right and will not give up their fight for justice.
Spencer’s father tweeted, “We will squeeze the venom of corruption of whom is involved in the killing and covering up.”
The investigators assert that they have been transparent and presented their evidence to the public.
Officials stated 31 spent cartridges from Spencer’s illegal AK-47 were discovered at the scene of the crime. Law enforcement found that the Jamaican also brought a second firearm, an AR-15 assault rifle.
While this has no bearing on the current case, the DA mentioned that before Spencer’s death, he and his fiancée were being investigated by both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the state Attorney General’s Office. It is suspected that the two were dealing with ghost guns or trafficking.
Spencer’s fiancée told White’s detectives that she did not witness him take any guns with him on the trip. However, the DA notes that at least one of the guns that were with Spencer at the cabin, the AR-15, was purchased by this same fiancée, who was pregnant with his child when he died.
The family’s attorney Paul Jubas stated the family was prepared for the DA’s decision. He said in a statement, “We are not surprised by it, this is the type of behavior we have seen from the PA State Police and Venango County District Attorney from the outset.”
There is an option open to the family to try and secure federal hate crime charges through Cindy Chung, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Next week, the Spencer family plans to have a press conference and present their own expert, Dr. Cyril Wecht. Wecht is an independent forensic pathologist that the family hired to assist in piecing together the happenings of Dec. 12, the morning Spencer was killed.
