ALLENTOWN, Pa.\u00a0\u2013 The Lehigh County district attorney’s office says no\u00a0charges will be filed in a fatal road rage shooting in Allentown.<\/p>\n
It happened around 3:30 a.m. on July 6 in the area of Fifth and Hamilton streets.<\/p>\n
Police said\u00a035-year-old Tamir Johnson forced another driver to the curb.<\/p>\n
The DA’s office said Johnson got out of his vehicle and began swinging a baseball bat at the other car. The other driver, who was in legal possession of a handgun, fired it once and shot Johnson, who later died at the hospital.<\/p>\n
After an investigation by the Allentown Police Department and the county homicide task force, the incident was ruled self defense.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the DA’s office said, “This conclusion is based on the specific facts of this case and relevant Pennsylvania law regarding self-defense, justification and the use of deadly force.”<\/p>\n
The investigation revealed that the driver of the Prius did not provoke Johnson’s conduct. The DA said Johnson pursued the Prius for approximately two blocks before cutting it off in the 500 block of Hamilton Street.<\/p>\n
Based on the manner in which Johnson swung the bat, the DA’s office said the driver of the Prius “reasonably concluded” that the bat was a weapon that was readily capable of lethal use. Under those circumstances, the driver was legally justified in using deadly force under Pennsylvania’s “stand your ground law.”<\/p>\n
After firing one shot, the driver of the Prius drove his car a short distance away, parked and called 911, investigators said. He remained at the scene until police arrived. The 9 mm handgun used was recovered.<\/p>\n
“While the law justifies the use of deadly force in such a situation, it is not something to be taken lightly. It has profound consequences for the family of [Johnson], and also for the driver of the Prius, who has expressed remorse for what transpired,” the DA’s office said. “Before releasing this public statement, our office met with Johnson\u2019s family who requested that we not only address how his life was ended, but how his life was lived.”<\/p>\n
Johnson had been a star basketball player at Kutztown University from 2009 to 2011.<\/p>\n
The DA’s office said Johnson’s family described him as a provider, a protector and their light, and they said his children “were his world and he never missed a moment in their lives.”<\/p>\n
Johnson’s family said he was passionate about helping others, especially at-risk youth. They said he worked at Glen Mills Schools and later for organizations like Homestead Family Services, Sevita and Comhar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa.\u00a0\u2013 The Lehigh County district attorney’s office says no\u00a0charges will be filed in a fatal road rage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232,10466],"class_list":["post-18001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area","tag-week-in-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18001","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=18001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}