Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher said legislation aiming to increase penalties for attempt, conspiracy or solicitation to commit murder of a law enforcement officer when serious bodily injury results is \u201ccommon sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
A shooting in January 2024 that severely injured Scranton police Detective Kyle Gilmartin highlighted the need for the legislation.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., introduced Senate Bill 1284 in April. State Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-40, Middle Smithfield Twp., serves as a co-sponsor.<\/p>\n
Gallagher, Baker and Brown participated in a news conference Monday in Harrisburg to call for support of the bill.<\/p>\n
Under current law, the offense of assault of a law enforcement officer involves attempting to cause or causing bodily injury to an officer by discharging a firearm and carries a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence, Baker and Brown noted in a memo associated with the bill.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the offense of criminal attempt\u2013murder of a law enforcement officer in the first degree requires significantly more demanding proof \u2014 the specific intent to kill \u2014 yet is subject to a substantially lower sentence, even when a failed murder of the law enforcement officer results in serious bodily injury. In that case the sentencing guidelines authorize a standard range sentence as low as seven to eight years, the senators said in the memo.<\/p>\n
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-5 to advance the bill on April 21.<\/p>\n
In the early hours of Jan. 11, 2024, Gilmartin, Detective Jason Hyler and Detective Sgt. Joseph Lafferty were tracking reports of prior gang-related shootings overnight in the city and responded to the 500 block of North Decker Court in West Scranton to try to prevent more shootings.<\/p>\n
Aiden Deininger, 22, of Old Forge, walked up to their unmarked police vehicle and shot Gilmartin twice in the head. Gilmartin was rushed to the hospital, where his life hung in the balance.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah Cleveland, 21, of Mayfield, was involved in a shooting earlier in the evening and was on Instagram live encouraging Deininger to shoot into a structure at the time of the shooting. Cleveland was sentenced to 20 to 36 years.<\/p>\n
Although Deininger was sentenced to 25 to more than 83 years in prison in February, Gallagher stressed the current framework leaves the door open for lesser sentences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t turn on luck, it should depend on the intent of the perpetrator, and the perpetrator intended for him to die,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
Gallagher hopes Republicans and Democrats can find common ground to make the bill a reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be partisan,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sure anytime someone tries to pass a bill, whether it\u2019s one side or the other, the other side is going to make it partisan, but this really shouldn\u2019t. It\u2019s just about common sense and public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher remembers difficult conversations with Gilmartin\u2019s family, and the other detectives who were in the vehicle during the shooting, leading up to the sentencing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about the potential that the sentence could be as low as seven years,\u201d he said. \u201cI think everyone was shocked, disappointed and dismayed about how in our community, in 2026, that could possibly even be on the table. It\u2019s my duty and obligation to be truthful; I have to disclose that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Gilmartin survived, Gallagher stressed the former detective\u2019s life has been forever altered.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll never work as a police officer again, he can barely use his left arm, he has a traumatic brain injury, he has slurred speech, he has PTSD, he has other physical disabilities, and just frustration,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cHe\u2019s not the same person he was. There has to be accountability and an appropriate sentence for what they took not only from Kyle, but what they took from his child, from his wife, from his parents, from his family, and from the Police Department. I think the 20-year mandatory minimum is appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher said legislation aiming to increase penalties for attempt, conspiracy or solicitation to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-183757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183757","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=183757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}