ALLENTOWN, PA \u2014 The Lehigh County District Attorney\u2019s Office has cleared an Allentown police officer in a shooting that occurred at the former Good Shepherd Hospital on Jan. 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Gavin Holihan announced no criminal charges will be filed against the officer, who shot a woman after she pointed what appeared to be a weapon at him while also holding a knife.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred at approximately 5:50 p.m. at 850 South 5th St.<\/p>\n
According to the investigation, the woman knocked on a hospital window and told a security guard she was being abused and needed emergency medical services.<\/p>\n
When the officer and two medics entered the lobby to assist her, the woman stood up brandishing a knife.<\/p>\n
One medic yelled that she had a knife, and all three responders backed away.<\/p>\n
The officer gave 16 verbal commands over approximately 45 seconds for the woman to drop the knife, which she refused to do.<\/p>\n
The woman made statements including \u201cIt\u2019s just a knife\u201d and \u201cAre you serious?\u201d while waving the knife around.<\/p>\n
The officer attempted to transition from his firearm to a taser to use less-than-lethal force.<\/p>\n
Before he could complete the transition, the woman turned toward him holding the knife in one hand and what appeared to be a gun or taser in the other.<\/p>\n
She raised her right arm and extended the object at the officer in what he described as a firing manner.<\/p>\n
The officer fired one round, striking the woman in the pelvis area.<\/p>\n
The object was later determined to be a digital infrared thermometer, also known as a \u201ctemperature gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
After being shot, the woman discarded both items and yelled \u201cThat wasn\u2019t a gun\u201d repeatedly.<\/p>\n
The officer, both medics and additional responders provided emergency medical treatment.<\/p>\n
The woman survived the shooting.<\/p>\n
A large pair of kitchen shears was also found in her pocket during treatment.<\/p>\n
Both medics told investigators they feared for their safety during the incident.<\/p>\n
The incident was recorded on the officer\u2019s body-worn camera and hospital surveillance video.<\/p>\n
Holihan concluded the officer\u2019s use of force was justified under Pennsylvania law, stating the officer reasonably believed the woman posed an imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury.<\/p>\n
The investigation was conducted jointly by the Allentown Police Department and the Lehigh County District Attorney\u2019s Office Homicide Task Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, PA \u2014 The Lehigh County District Attorney\u2019s Office has cleared an Allentown police officer in a shooting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-117489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}