SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A 20-year-old Scranton man who died following a police pursuit that ended with state police firing into his vehicle died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to autopsy results released by Lackawanna County Coroner Tim Rowland.<\/p>\n
Rowland said Christian Santiago, 20, died Monday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n
The coroner also determined Santiago \u201cincurred no other wound(s) as the result of external gunfire during the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
The finding answers a key question left unresolved following Sunday night’s pursuit and shooting near the North Scranton Expressway.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania State Police previously said investigators were working to determine whether the gunshot that caused Santiago’s fatal injury originated inside his vehicle or came from police gunfire.<\/p>\n
Incident began with reported stolen rifle<\/p>\n
According to state police, the incident began September 7 when Scranton Police investigated a burglary in which Santiago allegedly stole a .30-06 rifle from a relative’s residence.<\/p>\n
Police said Santiago later sent a family member a photograph showing the rifle and ammunition. His family subsequently obtained an involuntary mental health commitment warrant.<\/p>\n
Scranton Police later attempted to stop Santiago, who allegedly fled in a black Ford Focus.<\/p>\n
At approximately 8:37 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police located Santiago’s vehicle at the Penn Can Travel Plaza in Susquehanna County.<\/p>\n
A pursuit followed south on Interstate 81 and continued through several Lackawanna County communities.<\/p>\n
State police eventually performed a PIT maneuver near the beginning of the North Scranton Expressway, bringing the pursuit to an end.<\/p>\n
Gunshot heard before state police fired<\/p>\n
During the felony vehicle stop, state police said Santiago displayed a rifle from the driver’s-side window and failed to comply with commands from law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Investigators said a gunshot was heard from inside the vehicle.<\/p>\n
State police then discharged rounds into Santiago’s vehicle.<\/p>\n
Members of the Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team, Scranton Police Special Operations Group and Lackawanna County SWAT Team eventually removed Santiago from the vehicle.<\/p>\n
He was transported to Geisinger Community Medical Center, where he later died.<\/p>\n
At the time, PSP said its Troop R Major Case Team, Forensic Services Unit and Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Specialist unit were working to determine the origin of the gunshot responsible for Santiago’s fatal injury.<\/p>\n
Rowland’s autopsy findings now establish that the fatal wound was self-inflicted and that Santiago was not wounded by the external gunfire during the incident.<\/p>\n
State police have said the investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A 20-year-old Scranton man who died following a police pursuit that ended with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-282364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282364","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=282364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}