Probe Into Lower Burrell Officer's Shooting Death Continues
LOWER BURRELL (KDKA) -- Investigators continue to look at the fatal shooting of a local police officer.
Sources close to the investigation say questions have to be answered about response, procedure and training regarding this incident.
Not lost in the effort to produce t-shirts to honor Officer Derek Kotecki and to help his family – a real concern about violence and what is being described as an ambush of the Lower Burrell officer.
"It's horrifying, it's saddening, it's disgusting a lot of adjectives for it, but it's horrible," Plum Boro Police Chief Frank Monaco said.
The shooting happened last Wednesday night. Investigators say Charles Post waited in the backseat of a car and shot Officer Kotecki three times through the back window.
The incident has all departments examining procedure.
"It's not a criticism at any way about what happened to Lower Burrell because I wasn't there and I may have done the exact same thing in the same situation – it's not a criticism – but each time you have to evaluate if something goes wrong, how can you do it and maybe next time no one will get hurt," Chief Monaco said.
There have been questions raised about procedure, why a SWAT team wasn't called in, why Kotecki approached the car, was he told Post was in the car?
The Lower Burrell Police Chief cannot talk about the shooting investigation but is convinced procedure was followed.
"The way things went down, again, you don't want the outcome, of course, it's the last thing anybody would've ever wanted nor expected," Lower Burrell Police Chief Tracy Lindo said.
KDKA's Marty Griffin reports the investigation is being handled by the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office.
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