A police officer in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the killing of 22-year-old Glenwood “Bubba” Pysher, a student at Saint Elizabeth University in Morris County, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Sean Farrell, 58, a police corporal in Upper Pottsgrove Township, was charged in the Aug. 23 fatal shooting of Pysher in Upper Pottsgrove.
An investigation by the office found that Pysher had gone out to celebrate a friend’s 21st birthday that night and returned home from the bar with a designated driver. Pysher then walked to a different friend’s house to continue drinking, but mistakenly ended up on the back patio of the wrong house.
Police were dispatched to the home on Snyder Road after the homeowner called 911 to report a man at the rear of the home who they claimed was trying to break into the house. Farrell was the first to arrive, the office said.
Body camera footage showed that Farrell walked down the driveway with his firearm drawn, positioned himself behind a car and yelled “Police, let me see your hands.” He then yelled, “Hands up, hands up now, drop to the ground.”
Pysher visibly raised his hands, according to the investigation, and walked toward Farrell, the office said. The officer yelled, “Drop to the ground”, as Pysher continued to walk toward him with his hands raised.
Farrell yelled “Drop to the ground” again, then yelled, “Stop or I’ll—” but fired two shots before finishing the warning, investigators said.
Farrell shot Pysher twice in the chest. Pysher was 17 to 20 feet away from Farrell when he was fatally shot, the office said.
Pysher was unarmed, authorities said.
“The investigation found that Cpl. Farrell had less-than-lethal options on his utility belt that he did not employ, including a taser,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said.
“At the time of the shooting, the officer was a safe distance from Pysher behind a car, and the victim had his hands in the air and did not possess any type of weapon. Mr. Pysher was not a threat. This is not a legal use of deadly force, leading to the charge of voluntary manslaughter,” Steele said.
Pysher recently transferred to Saint Elizabeth to play Division III college baseball.
His family said the shooting occurred after Pysher knocked on the wrong door, thinking he was at a friend’s residence.
His mother, Erin Pysher, told ABC News on Tuesday that when the group decided to move the celebration to a friend’s house, her son walked to what he wrongly thought was the correct address.
“He was walking down the road to what he thought was his friend’s house. And after some drinks, he ended up walking in the dark at night. I guess he got mixed up, and he made a wrong turn and went to the wrong house,” she said in a phone interview with ABC News.
Erin Pysher said it appears that when her unarmed son arrived at the house, he rang the doorbell, went to the back of the house and knocked again and yelled for his friends to let him in.
His friends told him that he was at the wrong address and they would drive over to pick him up, according to Erin Pysher.
“His friends were on the way to pick him up when the cops, they said, went flying by them,” she said.
“We extend our deepest condolences to Glenn’s family, friends, teammates and all who knew and loved him,” Saint Elizabeth University President Gary Crosby told NJ.com. “We hold the Pysher family in our thoughts and prayers as we mourn a young man whose life and promise were taken far too soon.”
A GoFundMe campaign created by Pysher’s uncle has nearly reached its $40,000 goal as of Tuesday evening and will help with funeral costs.
It described him as a “promising young man, athlete, and scholar who loved his family dearly.”
He was a “passionate baseball player” who dedicated much of his life to the sport, and he was eagerly anticipating starting school in New Jersey, his obituary noted.
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