The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A coroner is no longer recommending criminal charges against a Pittsburgh Housing Authority police officer who fatally shot a man in a housing project.
Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht’s office originally recommended criminal homicide charges against one of three officers who encountered Bernard Rogers, 26, at the Bedford Dwellings housing complex on Nov. 15, 2002. Wecht recommended charges against the officer, Tonyea Curry, saying some of the physical evidence didn’t fit with police testimony.
But on Wednesday, Wecht said evidence discovered since then has cast enough doubt to rescind that nonbinding recommendation.
District Attorney Stephen Zappala didn’t immediately return a call saying what he would do now.
Despite the change, Wecht strongly recommended that Zappala continue the investigation by reinterviewing witnesses and the police officers. Wecht said the evidence as it stands now doesn’t exonerate the officers either.
Among other things, subsequent tests showed Rogers had marijuana in his system and an expert believes that may have contributed to his violent confrontation with police, Wecht said.
Wecht said he now also believes it’s possible that Rogers, who was shot in the chest, could still have run down the apartment steps before he collapsed, a scenario that the evidence didn’t support during an earlier inquest.