The New York Times has a photo of Charity Thome.
At a law enforcement banquet in November 2008, Jay Splain was honored as the police officer of the year. He shot and killed a man who pointed a Uzi submachine gun at him.
That was the first killing. An officer responsible for patrolling largely rural areas with low rates of violent crime shot and killed three more people in separate incidents. The four people who died were struggling with drugs or mental illness. The man with the Uzi was one of two cases in which family members called the police for help because they were threatening to kill themselves.
The most recent death was last month, when Splain shot a man in his car. Autumn asked why the person would still be employed after learning that he had killed three other people.
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Splain is an outlier. Most officers don't fire their weapons. His full record of killings has not been made public until now, as the Pennsylvania State Police fought a lawsuit to identify him. No officer has ever been prosecuted for fatally shooting someone in the agency's more than century of policing. There is little accountability for police officers' use of deadly force across the country.
Splain's first three killings were justified, and an inquiry into the most recent one is ongoing. The police agency has conducted its own investigations, which were led by officers from his unit, raising questions about the rigor of the inquiries.
Tom Hogan, a former district attorney in Chester County, Pennsylvania, said that the public will never trust the police agency to investigate itself and be impartial. A Republican, he helped write recommendations for the state prosecutors association for independent investigations, a reform that many departments resist but one that the national prosecutors association and major policing groups want.
The New York Times found that there were inconsistencies between what the state police said and what the evidence showed. Interviews and an examination of investigative and court records show that the officer left from police protocols in several of the fatal confrontations.
The people killed in the encounters were in vehicles. The Times found in an earlier investigation that the trooper shot two drivers because they were using their vehicles as weapons, a frequent rationale. Many large police departments don't allow shooting at moving vehicles because it's dangerous and useless.
Splain, who is on desk duty until the inquiry is completed, did not reply to a letter or call. The other troopers who were involved in the shootings did not respond to messages. David Kennedy, president of the state troopers union, responded on Splain's behalf, saying he had acted with courage and was forced to make split-second decisions no one hopes they ever have to make.
The Pennsylvania State Police are confident they have the resources to investigate such incidents thoroughly and objectively. Questions about the killings were forwarded to the district attorneys. Miller said that the records of Splain were confidential.
In some cases, troopers may be required to undergo use-of-force training at the police academy, as well as specialized training to assess their physical and mental fitness before returning to active duty.
The four shootings were called a red flag by a former police chief.
He said that four is very unusual. That is on the edge. Even if the shootings can be justified, the pattern needs to be examined very closely to determine why the same officer repeatedly uses deadly force. He said that because they can, it doesn't mean they should.
It is not clear how often police officers kill multiple people. There is no database that keeps track. In 2012 an officer in Arizona retired after a sixth fatal shooting. A sheriff's deputy in Florida was involved in his fourth fatal shooting in 2015. Both officers were called into dangerous situations where gunfire was most common.
Splain is a patrol officer who works in rural areas of Pennsylvania, where state police rarely kill anyone. According to a Times analysis, he has been responsible for four of the nine fatal shootings by troopers in the three counties where they occurred. The killings by Splain were reported by local news outlets.
Splain was inspired by the military as a young child. He was the son of a doctor and a nurse and attended the elite Hill prep school outside Philadelphia. He was a member of the school's gun club. His senior page pictured him holding a rifle and quoted the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Jackson was an instructor at the Virginia Military Institute. Splain referred to himself as a warrior in his college bio, after he joined a military officer training program.
Splain became a state trooper in 2004, with duties that included making drunk driving arrests, tracking down thieves, and catching a suspect in a paintball incident. Nicholas Shallcross said that Splain had moved from the military to law enforcement.
The lieutenant colonel said that Splain saw himself as a protection.
A call for help.
In July 2007, Joseph Rotkewicz, who had a mental illness, took two of his brother's guns into a room of his family's home and repeatedly threatened to kill himself. His girlfriend had an affair with his best friend.
Linda Hunsicker and Hans Frendt tried to talk him down for an hour. At least two shots were fired at the ceiling. Hunsicker's brother never threatened her or Frendt.
She said that he kept begging her not to call the cops. I wish I would have listened.
She was told to go outside by emergency operators. Frendt later said that the barrel pointed up at his chin because of the electrical tape that was used to strap an Uzi to his neck and chest.
Hunsicker recalled that a group of state troopers showed up about 5 p.m., and a specially trained negotiating team typically responds to such situations. The police tried to call the house, but Hunsicker had brought the phone out with her.
With a person threatening to harm himself, slow things down and don't force a confrontation, said a consultant to police departments and a former captain.
He said entering a house to challenge someone threatening suicide is not consistent with generally accepted law enforcement practices.
Pennsylvania State Police regulations call for troopers to take steps to calm/de-escalate the situation when feasible and to assume a quiet, nonthreatening manner when dealing with someone who is mentally ill.
Hunsicker said no one had tried to resolve her brother's crisis with a bullhorn. Splain and another trooper entered the house. Frendt told the deputy coroner that he was ordered to leave by the troopers.
He heard one of them demand that Rotkewicz drop his weapon, followed by two gunshots.
Records show that Splain shot Rotkewicz twice. Pennsylvania State Police later said that the Uzi was pointed at Splain.
His unit named him trooper of the year. His commanding officer wrote that he had a history of mental disease and was threatening his life and the lives of other people.
The letter said that Splain had seen the Uzi being held beneath the man's chin. The letter said that Rotkewicz ignored repeated orders from Splain to stop and drop the gun.
A lawyer for the state police acknowledged in a court filing that the Uzi was put to the man's chest and neck by means of black-colored electrical tape. The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy wrote that the tape was wrapped around the neck several times, and that it may have been broken.
The Pennsylvania State Police assign a lead investigator from the same troop's major case team to lead the criminal inquiry. Splain worked out of the same barracks as the lead investigator.
It's unusual to assign officers from the same unit to look at a shooting, according to Joseph Kuhns, a criminologist at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.
Hunsicker tried to get the police investigative report so she could find out what happened to her brother. The police refused to provide the report because they wanted to cover up wrongful conduct, her lawyer said in a court filing. She didn't know the name of the officer who killed her brother until a reporter told her.
James B. Martin, a Republican who has been the district attorney of Lehigh County for over 30 years, said that after meeting with the lead investigator, he had ruled the shooting justified. He said he didn't recall if the gun had been taped to the man.
Police were allowed to investigate themselves.
The integrity of the Pennsylvania State Police is beyond reproach, as far as I can tell, because they are a group of very well-qualified police officers.
A different choice.
Anthony Ardo was threatening to blow his head off on a Saturday in May of last year. The 47-year-old was evicted from his mother's house after being addicted to drugs for years. Splain and Eddie Pagan persuaded her to lure him back to her family farm after she called for help.
According to the officers, Ardo reversed his Buick Reatta after pulling up. The troopers ran out the back door and hid in their patrol cars. The troopers told police investigators that they drew their firearms when they trapped the Buick between their cars.
The troopers began shooting. Lawyers for Monaghan believe that Splain killed Ardo with the last three bullets. According to court filings, the troopers feared for their lives as Ardo, sitting in the driver's seat, appeared to be lighting something around his neck. That was a common firework.
The dead man's mother wondered why the officers hadn't stepped away from the situation. They rushed him and didn't give him a chance, which is why she filed a wrongful death lawsuit. She said that if they had backed up and left him alone, he would not have been in harm's way.
The Times found that mental health crises were a recurring theme in the hundreds of killings of motorists by police. In at least 10 cases, callers asked police to check on the welfare of people threatening suicide or struggling with mental illness. The drivers were shot by the responding officers, who said they were afraid someone else would run over them.
Miller said troopers use their discretion to assess the current situation and resources available to them. The agency couldn't comment on pending litigation.
A lieutenant from the state police called John Morganelli, the district attorney in Northampton County, to ask how the prosecutor wanted to handle the investigation after Ardo was shot. Morganelli assigned a detective to the office.
The lieutenant told Morganelli that his bosses wouldn't give up the criminal investigation.
No one interviewed either trooper for about a month because of the dispute. The two men talked to each other and watched dash cam videos of the shooting. Allowing officers to share information before interviews can lead them to align their stories, according to law enforcement experts.
Both men said in depositions that Splain told Pagan about his fatal shooting. He gave me advice as to how to handle the stress.
An investigator from Troop M was assigned to lead the inquiry. Superior officers told the grand jury that they rely on investigating troopers to report potential conflicts of interest.
The lead investigator, trooper Michael Everk, declined to speak to this article. He worked with Splain on a marijuana bust. Everk referred to Pagan asEddie several times while interviewing the troopers, instead of speaking more formally.
A grand jury concluded that the shooting was justified. The jurors issued a second report accusing state police leaders of being arrogant in their view of superiority over other law enforcement agencies. The panel found that investigators gave troopers special treatment that is not generally given to other people who are the subject of a criminal investigation.
Splain was moved to Troop L the next year.
The Gravest of Situations.
The Lebanon County district attorney hosts an annual event called "Back the Blue" to raise money for a Pennsylvania nonprofit that helps the families of slain officers. Her husband is employed by the state police.
The need for criminal investigations into killings by police is highlighted by these apparent conflicts of interest. Some police departments call in district attorneys from other counties to investigate deaths. Many of these investigations have been shifted to the state attorney general's office.
The investigation into the fatal shooting of Splain was overseen by Graf last year. Her husband was based in the same barracks.
Charity Thome, who had mental illness and drug addiction, fled from officers after she was caught trying to break into her former home.
The officer of the North Lebanon Police Department ended the chase because the woman was not endangering the public because there were few cars on the road.
But then Splain and a trooper joined him. Thome led police on a lengthy high-speed chase, with no regard for traffic lights, signs, police sirens, other vehicles on the roadway or the safety of the general public.
Many police departments ban high-speed chases of non-violent offenders if officers know who they are and can find them later. Splain did a risky maneuver to force Thome to stop.
The Accord went into a field. Thome drove into the SUV. Two troopers jumped out of their vehicle. According to a lawsuit filed by Thome's family, Splain yelled "stop, stop, get out of the car, show me your hands" when he confronted Thome.
He fired the rookies first. According to the lawsuit, Thome died almost instantly.
Thome accelerated forward and drove into the officer's vehicle, according to the April 2020 news release. The release said that Splain and Haber were worried about Thome reversing and running over officers or continuing to ram the SUV.
According to his interviews with police included in the lawsuit, Haase was more concerned about damage to his vehicle than about his safety. The lawsuit said that the SUV suffered minimal damage and that neither the air bags deployed.
There were no police commands in the video. Splain told police that he left the car and shot at someone. The video shows it took a few seconds.
Thomas Kline is a lawyer for Thome's family. Instead, they fired multiple rounds of bullets into her pinned-down vehicle, leaving her defenseless and tragically dead.
Pennsylvania state troopers should not shoot at moving vehicles unless the driver poses an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, or if shooting is the last resort to prevent a suspect in a violent felony from escaping.
In the release, she said that she had assigned her detective bureau to oversee the investigation. The state police inquiry was led by an investigator from the same troop as Splain.
The shooting was justified after about a month, compared with similar inquiries reviewed by reporters. In response to questions from the Times, she stood by her decisions and didn't address any potential conflict of interest.
According to the news release announcing her ruling, law enforcement took a life. She said that they knew the use of deadly force was necessary in the most grave of situations.
The 4th killing.
By November, Andy was unraveling, a 40-year-old metal worker who had once been named "loudest laugh" and voted president of his high school class.
His girlfriend of 20 years left because of his drug use. She obtained a protection order after he talked of killing himself in front of their two sons if she didn't return. Hastings said that Andy never threatened him or the kids.
About 10:30 p.m. Hastings called the police because he was texting in violation of the order. Two troopers showed up.
Hastings said that while he was talking to them, the man who was caring for their sons sent another text saying he needed a thermometer for one boy. She went inside because it was cold. She was staying down the road from the person who drove up.
The troopers tried to arrest him in his car, but a struggle ensued, according to a police spokesman. One officer was dragged by a vehicle after getting caught inside it, but he was not injured.
It was not like a fast back-and-forth.
The 1999 Beetle was a stick shift, making it difficult to move quickly. The attempts to subdue the man with a stun gun didn't work. He said that the other officer fired his weapon after that.
That was not correct.
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