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Jury awards $21 million to family of Washington County man killed by Pa. state police

Paula Reed Ward
| Wednesday, May 29, 2024 8:48 p.m.
Massoud Hossaini | TribLive
A Pittsburgh jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding that Pennsylvania State Trooper Chad Weaver, right, used excessive force when he killed Anthony Gallo in 2017.

Twenty-one million dollars.

That’s how much a jury says Anthony Gallo’s life — and death — is worth.

Shot and killed by Pennsylvania State Trooper Chad Weaver on Oct. 1, 2017, Gallo was 34 when he died in a Washington County mobile home in the midst of a mental health crisis. He left behind a son who was then 14.

On Wednesday, a federal jury in Pittsburgh said that Weaver, who shot Gallo 10 times with an AR-15 rifle from just a few feet away, used excessive force, violating his constitutional rights.

The jury of eight found in favor of Gallo’s family, who filed suit in 2019.

After the verdict was read, his mother, Betty Gray, stood in the hallway outside the courtroom watching as Weaver walked out.

“I just wanted him to look me in my eyes,” she said. “Just see the hurt in my eyes.”

He didn’t look at her.

“I’m just glad he was found guilty for what he did to my son,” Gray said. “We all know it was wrong, and justice would be paid.”

Paul Gallo, the victim’s son, was grateful for the verdict.

“Seven long years,” he said. “I’m just glad it’s over.”

The jury began deliberating around lunchtime on Wednesday following closing arguments in the six-day trial.

They returned with their verdict less than three hours later.

Neither Weaver nor the attorneys from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, who represented him, had any comment.

Weaver is still employed by the Pennsylvania State Police and works for the Bureau of Gaming Enforcement. The police agency is responsible for paying the verdict. The jury awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages.

A spokesman for the state police said the agency was reviewing the verdict and had no further comment.

At the time of the shooting, Weaver was assigned to the state police barracks in Washington.

On the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2017, Gallo’s aunt called 911 asking for help.

Harriet Southall told the call taker her nephew was out of control. He was armed with a kitchen knife and was going in and out of people’s trailers in the mobile home community where his grandmother lived.

Gallo, who’d sustained a head injury in a car crash months earlier, believed he was in the Navy and was trying to keep his troops safe.

Weaver and Trooper Matthew Shaffer were the first to arrive on scene.

Both troopers immediately grabbed their AR-15s and approached Gallo, who was standing in front of the door of a neighbor’s trailer.

Gray testified early in the trial that she tried to talk to Weaver to explain what was happening, but he told her to “get the [expletive] out of the way,” she said.

Gallo, who was holding a kitchen knife down to his side, turned and ran into the trailer.

Shaffer asked Gray if anyone else was inside. She said no, and the troopers followed Gallo inside.

In less than 30 seconds, Weaver killed him.

At trial, Weaver said that Gallo refused to comply with troopers’ commands to drop the knife he was holding. Then, Weaver claimed that Gallo raised the knife and took a step toward him in the confined space of the trailer.

“I was in fear of death or serious bodily injury,” Weaver told the jury.

But Shaffer’s testimony contradicted Weaver’s. Shaffer told the jury he never saw Gallo raise the knife or move toward Weaver, and that his partner that day killed Gallo because he refused to comply with their commands.

During closing arguments on Wednesday, Noah Geary, who represents the Gallo family, told the jury that it was clear Weaver used excessive force that day.

The testimony showed that when Weaver shot Gallo, he fired five shots initially, paused for a few seconds and then fired five more. Three of those went into Gallo’s back.

“Should Gallo have dropped the knife? Yes,” Geary said. “But the fact he didn’t drop the weapon doesn’t give Weaver license to shoot him to death.”

Geary reminded the jury that the burden in a civil case is just a preponderance of the evidence.

“More likely true than not true — that’s the legal standard,” he said.

Geary urged the jury to send a message to Weaver and the state police, reminding them that the defendant admitted on the stand to violating several department policies, including failing to secure his AR-15 in his patrol vehicle, failing to ensure his microphone was working and failing to carry pepper spray on his duty belt.

“This guy doesn’t care about rules,” Geary said. “He doesn’t care about policy.

“He does whatever he wants.”

Geary asked the jury to award his clients an “extraordinary amount of money” for their extraordinary loss.

“You have the opportunity to do something meaningful, important and courageous,” he said. “There is a terrible, terrible need for justice in this case.”

Deputy Attorney General Amelia Goodrich, though, in her closing told the jurors that they needed to view what happened that day through the lens of what the troopers knew at the time — not second-guessing after the fact.

“This happened quickly,” she said. “All of these life-and-death decisions … had to be evaluated by Trooper Weaver in an instant.

“This was a tragedy. But just because it was a tragedy doesn’t mean it was a constitutional violation,” she said.

Goodrich told the jury that Geary and an expert witness he called in his case downplayed the dangerousness of the call that day.

“Why were the police called? This was an urgent and chaotic situation,” she said. “You don’t have to be a lawyer or use-of-force expert to know a crime was committed when Gallo was entering other people’s trailers.”

She dismissed Geary’s criticism of Weaver for carrying his AR-15 that day, calling it one of several standard weapons used by the state police.

“The troopers needed to have the means to protect themselves,” Goodrich said. “This is an individual suspected of armed home invasion. They are there to arrest him.”

Not only did Gallo refuse to comply with the troopers’ commands, he also fled into the trailer, she continued.

“Fleeing is also a crime.”

Goodrich told the jury that the troopers had to chase Gallo into the trailer to ensure the safety of those around him.

“I think we all know it’s the job of police to run toward danger in these situations,” she said. “This is heroic behavior. This is what we want police to do.”

When the Gallo family initially filed suit, they named as defendants both Weaver and four of his state police supervisors, alleging supervisory liability. They claimed that the bosses failed to properly train, supervise and discipline Weaver for previous instances when he was accused of using excessive force.

However, on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville granted a motion by the defense to dismiss the supervisors.

The judge said that Geary had failed to present sufficient evidence to show that the supervisors had actual knowledge of Weaver’s disciplinary history.

He also denied a request by Geary to allow the testimony from two women who said Weaver was out of control when, nine days earlier, he held them on the ground for several minutes with his AR-15 trained on them after a report of a burglary.

Colville said at the beginning of the case that their testimony could be considered by the jury only with respect to the supervisory liability claims.

However, later in the trial — and after listening to the women testify outside the presence of the jury — Colville said the testimony was too prejudicial to be admitted.

On Wednesday during his final instructions to the eight jurors, the judge told them that they were not to consider any of the evidence they heard earlier in the trial regarding the supervisors.

“As those individuals are no longer in the case, I am now instructing you that that evidence cannot be considered for any purpose,” he said.

Colville additionally struck from the record any comments about the number of alleged previous instances of excessive force by Weaver — Geary said there were 36 over 10 years — or that Weaver had previously been admitted into the state police Early Intervention Program that addresses concerns about anger and mental health issues.

“I am instructing you that you must disregard those references,” Colville told the jurors. “That means that when you are deciding the case, you must not consider that information in any way.”


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