Peter Spencer's Family Pushes Back On DA's Decision Not To File Charges
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The family of Peter Spencer is pushing back after the Venango County district attorney determined no charges would be filed in his death.
The family's attorney held a press conference Monday calling out inconsistencies with the district attorney's statement and expressing their confidence that criminal charges will be coming down.
Spencer's family hired their own forensic pathologist to perform a second autopsy on him. Dr. Cyril Wecht said he performed the second autopsy along with his colleague about three weeks after the initial autopsy, which on Jan. 3.
Wecht spent some time analyzing all nine bullet wounds on Spencer's body, five of which, according to Wecht, were in Spencer's back.
During the second autopsy, Wecht said his analysis of the skin around the bullet wounds showed no gun powder residue or stippling, which would indicate the shots were fired from more than two feet away.
"He wasn't walking backwards. He was running away and when you put that together with the fact that it's a distant shot, and there are five of those shots, where is this fear on the part of the shooter that he is being threatened?" Wecht said.
District Attorney Shawn White previously said the December shooting happened in self-defense, citing multiple witnesses who say Spencer became unintelligible, threatening fellow campers, firing an AK-47 into the air and pointing the gun at his friend who was trying to calm Spencer down.
It was then the DA said Spencer's friend shot him 11 times after being unable to deescalate the situation.
Spencer's family and legal team are cooperating with the federal investigation into this shooting, where they do believe criminal charges are forthcoming.
