'I was afraid of dying': Trooper defends killing knife-wielding Washington County man

Pennsylvania State Trooper Chad Weaver said that in the moment before he shot Anthony Gallo 10 times with his AR-15 rifle in a Washington County trailer, the suspect, just 2 feet away, took a step toward him and tried to stab him.

“Anthony Gallo didn’t comply with my commands, and he stepped toward me in a confined space with a deadly weapon and attempted to kill me,” Weaver testified on Wednesday during a federal civil trial over Gallo’s 2017 death.

But a use-of-force expert told a jury later in the day that Gallo had to have been at least 5 feet away from Weaver when he opened fire.

More than that, Emanuel Kapelsohn testified, Weaver should have never chased Gallo into the trailer in the first place.

“For many, many reasons, this was bad police work, unreasonable and excessive,” he said.

Louis Gallo, the father of the man killed, sued Weaver and four state police supervisors, Steven Driscoll, Joseph Ruggery, Dale Brown and John Kean in 2019. The lawsuit alleges excessive force by Weaver and supervisory liability against the other defendants.

On the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2017, Gallo’s aunt called 911 to report that her nephew was acting erratically. He was armed with a knife, she said, and had been going in and out of people’s trailers at the Canton Township mobile home park where he had been staying with his grandmother. They thought he might be suicidal.

A few months earlier, Gallo had been in a car crash and sustained a head injury. He had begun exhibiting symptoms of mental illness, his family said, including paranoia.

Weaver and another trooper from the Washington barracks, Matthew Shaffer, were dispatched to the Mark Avenue trailer park.

Within 30 seconds of encountering Gallo, he was dead.

Weaver spent about an hour on the stand Wednesday morning, describing what happened that day.

When the troopers first arrived, he said, Gallo was at the doorway of a neighbor’s trailer.

Weaver said that when Gallo ran inside, he and Shaffer had no option but to follow him.

“I have to go find where he goes. I’m responsible for not only his life but the lives of the people in the trailer park,” Weaver said.

The original call said that the subject was out of control, he continued.

“My job is to maintain order.”

Gallo’s mother testified on Tuesday that when the troopers arrived, she told them her son was having a mental health crisis, and that no one else was in the trailer.

Weaver’s response, she told the jury, was “‘Get the [expletive] out of the way.’”

But on Wednesday, Weaver testified, “I don’t remember seeing her.”

He told the jury that there was no time to wait and assess the situation.

“It’s imperative I make a quick judgment to act,” Weaver said.

He testified that he and Shaffer followed Gallo into the trailer, close behind him.

Both troopers were armed with AR-15 rifles, while Gallo was holding a kitchen knife with a 4-inch blade.

“They’re equally deadly,” Weaver told the jury.

Once Gallo was at the back of the trailer, he had nowhere else to go. Gallo was standing in front of a bed in a back bedroom when, Weaver said, Gallo took a step toward the trooper.

That’s when Weaver fired — first a volley of five shots, then a few seconds later, five more.

Every bullet struck Gallo, who was shot seven times in the front of his body and three times in the back. Weaver said he fired the second volley because it appeared Gallo was trying to get up off the bed and was still clutching the knife.

“I was afraid of dying that day in that trailer because that gentleman was holding a deadly weapon in his hand,” Weaver said.

Throughout his testimony, Weaver repeated the phrase, “I was in fear of death and bodily injury,” the same language Pennsylvania law requires to justify the use of deadly force.

But Weaver’s testimony that Gallo made a movement toward him and threatened him with the knife was directly contradicted on Tuesday by Shaffer.

“I didn’t observe any type of movement toward Weaver,” Shaffer said. “We were very close.”

Weaver told the jury Shaffer’s observations were wrong, though he also called Shaffer honest and a man of integrity.

During Weaver’s testimony on Wednesday, he admitted to violating several state police policies — not only the day of the shooting but regularly.

Weaver admitted that he was not carrying pepper spray on his duty belt at the time of the shooting and frequently did not. He also said that he typically put his AR-15 assault rifle, which he called his “primary weapon system” on his vehicle’s back seat and not in the secure gun rack in the patrol vehicle.

“It’s in the back seat where I feel comfortable with it there,” Weaver said. “It’s more tactically sound for me to get it there when I’m in a hurry.”

Both decisions violate state police policy, the 13-year veteran said, but he testified that he was never disciplined for either lapse.

Also testifying on Wednesday was state police Cpl. Kevin Selverian, an instructor in use of force for the department.

Selverian told the jury that he believed that Weaver was justified in shooting Gallo.

“He was reasonable in his use of force,” he said.

Selverian based his opinion on Weaver’s statements that Gallo moved toward him and made a motion with the knife.

Under questioning by Noah Geary, the Gallo family’s attorney, Selverian said his conclusion would be different if Gallo didn’t do what Weaver claimed.

“If he didn’t move toward him and try to stab him with a knife, yes, it would be unreasonable,” Selverian said.

Selverian testified that officers are taught to consider three things before using deadly force: whether a subject has the ability, opportunity and intent to cause death or serious bodily injury.

Gallo had all three, he said.

“It’s my opinion deadly force needed to be used.”

But Kapelsohn, the Gallos’ expert, who has been an instructor in use of force for 46 years, said that’s not the case.

He told the jury that there was no reason for Weaver and Shaffer to rush into the trailer that day. They could easily have taken a few seconds, minutes or even hours, to assess the situation and resolve it without violence.

When the troopers encountered Gallo outside, he was standing still, with the knife at his side. He was not threatening anyone, witnesses said. The officers could have spoken to Gallo or listened to his mother, Kapelsohn told the jury. They could have engaged in a dialogue with him instead of screaming commands.

“There was no need to rush in there with rifles with someone threatening suicide,” Kapelsohn said.

If there were potential hostages in the trailer, he continued, the troopers were further endangering them.

“It’s not very good judgment. It’s not very good police work.”

Kapelsohn said that Weaver and Shaffer should never have gotten so close to Gallo inside the trailer.

“They’re putting themselves in tremendous danger if they get within a few feet,” Kapelsohn said. “They’re not giving themselves any option but to shoot him.”

As for Weaver’s testimony that Gallo was just 2 feet away when he fired, Kapelsohn told the jury that was impossible. The rifle he was carrying, is 32 1/2 inches long, and, with its stock fully extended, just over 3 feet long.

If Gallo was just 2 feet away, the witness said, “the muzzle would be extended through him.”

Given the lack of soot or stippling on the body, and the lack of evidence on Gallo’s clothing, Kapelsohn said, Weaver had to have been at least 5 feet away when he fired.

“With a 3-foot long rifle, you can’t shoot someone who is 2 feet away,” he said.

The trial, before U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville, began on Tuesday.

Kapelsohn will return to the stand Thursday for cross-examination.