Man accused of killing McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski ordered to stand trial

The man accused of killing McKeesport police Officer Sean Sluganski told detectives he doesn’t remember shooting the 32-year-old officer on the city’s Grandview Avenue last week.

But Johnathan Morris, 31, told Allegheny County Police homicide Detective Patrick Kinavey that, if police had evidence that he shot Sluganski, then he must have done it.

On Friday, Morris was ordered to stand trial on all charges by District Judge Bruce Boni following an hourlong preliminary hearing at Pittsburgh’s municipal court building. Those counts include criminal homicide, homicide of a law enforcement officer, attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer and gun charges.

A formal arraignment in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court is scheduled for March 21. The District Attorney’s Office would have to decide by then whether to seek the death penalty.

At Friday’s hearing, McKeesport Officer Chuck Thomas, who also was wounded that day, sat in the front row of the courtroom, next to Sluganski’s family.

About a dozen police officers filled the rows behind them in the gallery, including McKeesport Chief Adam Alfer.

Kinavey was the only witness called by Deputy District Attorney Kevin Chernosky, who admitted no video evidence despite having a lot of it. That allegedly includes footage of the shooting of the two officers as recorded by two people in a car who Morris asked to follow him.

Morris was represented by Assistant Public Defender Art Ettinger, who did not call any witnesses.

Sluganski was killed and Thomas wounded just after noon Feb. 6 after McKeesport police had been called to 1411 Wilson St. for a domestic dispute between Morris and his mother. Sluganski was shot twice, in the torso and just below his left clavicle.

On Friday, Kinavey testified that he interviewed Morris inside room No. 738 at UPMC Presbyterian hospital Feb. 9, shortly before Morris was discharged. He had been treated at the hospital for three days after suffering gunshot wounds to his leg during the incident.

At the preliminary hearing, Morris, dressed in a standard red Allegheny County Jail uniform, remained in a wheelchair.

As he arrived in the courtroom, he glanced back to family members in the gallery and nodded at them. They did not comment after the hearing.

Morris told Kinavey that, on the day of the shooting, he was about to leave his mother’s house when he realized he’d forgotten his satchel. He returned to get it, but it was missing.

Morris told officers he believed his mother, fired McKeesport police Officer Candace Tyler, or one of his brothers had taken it.

As Morris searched for it, he told Kinavey, his mother attacked him. He claimed he wouldn’t hit her and instead shrugged her off and left the house, the detective said. Morris said his brothers were outside as he left.

Morris said in the interview that he saw a white officer, Sluganski, and a Black officer, Thomas, arrive and knew they wanted to talk with him. The interaction was captured on body camera footage but not played Friday.

“He wasn’t going to go with them and began to walk away from them,” Kinavey said.

Morris recounted that he dropped his cellphone in an alley and believed Sluganski had picked it up.

Morris then told Kinavey that he saw Thomas in his police car in front of him in the alley.

“He told them he wasn’t going to go with them,” Kinavey testified. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Morris then remembered being on Grandview Avenue and said Thomas tried to hit him with his police car, so Morris jumped on its hood.

He claimed he saw Thomas pull out his weapon, and he rolled off the hood and headed across Grandview, Kinavey testified. Morris then said Thomas attempted to hit him with the car again.

Morris said he then pulled out his gun from his waistband, racked the slide and aimed it at Thomas to scare him, Kinavey said.

“He fired two shots into Officer Thomas’ vehicle,” the detective continued.

It was then that Morris realized he had been shot in the leg.

He flagged down two people in a Uni-Mart parking lot for help. That’s when McKeesport Lt. Robert Eastman arrived.

“‘The officer appeared to be out for blood,’” Morris told Kinavey. “When he saw the officer reach to pull the gun out, (Morris) fired one shot.”

Morris tried to roll away from the gunfire and said he threw his weapon away.

The next thing he remembered was waking up on a stretcher, Kinavey said.

“He stated he only fired two shots at Officer Thomas,” the detective said.

When confronted with video evidence and the number of spent .9mm casings fired from the gun he had — detectives recovered a total of six casings — Morris “stated he doesn’t remember shooting Officer Sluganski, but he must have,” Kinavey said.

Morris also admitted he asked two females in a car to record his interactions with the police that day.

“ ‘I believed the police were trying to get me,’ ” Morris told Kinavey.

The detective testified that the females in the car offered to take Morris out of McKeesport, but he declined.

During his interview with Morris, Kinavey also asked him about having PTSD, as reported by Tyler when she initially called 911. She told dispatchers her son is a veteran, and she believed he was having a PTSD episode.

Morris told Kinavey his PTSD is well-managed by him, including through meditation and “taking a shower to rinse the PTSD away.”

“Mr. Morris indicated to me he was having a good day and was not suffering from any episodes on that day,” Kinavey testified.