What I found most interesting from yesterday's press conference by District Attorney Jack Whelan on the fatal police-involved shooting in Chester was not the ruling that it was 'justified,' but what that ruling was based on.
IF you haven't noticed, police shootings are under a microscope these days.
So eyebrows were raised when word started to spread about the Chester shooting, which followed a high-speed chase that started in Upland Borough and ended up on a quiet residential street in the city.
That's when police and Whelan say Shalamar Longer, 33, flashed a gun and pointed it at police officers. He never had a chance to fire a shot.
Officers opened fire on Longer, with as many as 50 to 100 bullets flying.
Whelan indicated yesterday that Longer, who had a lengthy criminal record and just recently was out of jail on parole, had no intention of going back to prison.
And Whelan said they got that information from the man who was sitting next to Longer. That would be his cousin Asmar, 23. Asmar was wounded in the incident. He is not facing any charges.
Whelan said Asmar, who fled the vehicle and was wounded in the gunfire, cooperated with officials and told them his cousin had no intention of going back to jail.
"That speaks volumes, that hes not going back to jail," Whelan said at yesterday's press conference at county CID headquarters in the Media Courthouse. "The reasonable interpretation is that, 'I'm going to do whatever I can not to go back to jail, including killing police officers.'"
I am guessing family and friends of Shalamar Longer might see it another way, or might question the amount of force used in the situation, but it's hard to argue with where that information came from.
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