Upper St. Clair mom wins battle for names of cops who fatally shot her son

For months, Susan Shepherd fought to learn the names of the police officers who fatally shot her mentally ill son in Upper St. Clair so she could sue them.

But Baldwin Borough, Bethel Park and Brentwood refused to tell her who pulled the trigger on Jan. 7 when members of a South Hills regional SWAT team killed Christopher Shepherd.

Shepherd resorted to suing Doe Police Officers 1-4 in federal court because she didn’t know how else to identify them.

Now she does.

Last week, under pressure from subpoenas, the municipalities named the officers, and on Tuesday, Shepherd’s lawyers filed a 22-page amended complaint in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh alleging civil rights violations and wrongful death.

The complaint identifies the defendants as: Andrew Jacobs and Matthew Poling of Bethel Park; Anthony Williams of Baldwin; and John Skrip of Brentwood.

They are listed as defendants in their individual capacities.

Susan Shepherd originally filed a federal lawsuit in April claiming her 48-year-old son, who was armed with a kitchen knife, was shot in the back eight times while running away from officers. The shooting came after a five-hour stand-off outside the Lamar Road house the Shepherds shared.

Police have provided scant details about the confrontation between Shepherd and officers that preceded the shooting. They have not revealed how far Shepherd was from the officers when they fired or why they were unable to use less-than-lethal force.

A federal judge last month permitted attorneys Todd Hollis and Vincent Colianni, who represent the Shepherd family, to file subpoenas for the officers’ names.

Earlier this year, Baldwin Borough, Bethel Park and Brentwood repeatedly denied open records requests filed under the state Right-To-Know Law seeking the names, ranks, hiring dates and any disciplinary history of the officers.

TribLive appealed those denials to the state Office of Open Records in Harrisburg. That office sided with police, saying the officers’ safety trumped transparency.

A TribLive story last month looked at how police departments often refuse to name officers who kill civilians or release full details about the encounters unless they are forced to through litigation.

Who they are

Bethel Park and Brentwood did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking employment status, salary or other information about Jacobs, Poling or Skrip.

The South Hills Council of Governments, which runs the joint SWAT team, declined to comment.

“All the information you’re looking for, we cannot comment on because it’s pending litigation,” Baldwin police Chief Tony Cortazzo told TribLive.

There is little public information about the four officers.

Williams joined Baldwin police in 2019, the force said in a Facebook post.

Skrip is listed in an online roster as a sergeant in Brentwood, whose department includes 14 full-time officers.

Polingstarted workinginBethelParkin2017,accordingto Facebook posts and Poling’s LinkedIn page.

Between 2009 and 2017, he worked as a police officer in Pittsburgh, Elizabeth Township, Rostraver and Turtle Creek.

Pittsburgh police told TribLive they hired Poling on Aug. 20, 2012 as a recruit, at a starting salary of $28,475. He served through Aug. 31, 2017, leaving as an officer with a $62,608 salary.

Jacobs started working as a Bethel Park police officer in 2018 after working for police forces in Pittsburgh and Monessen, according to his LinkedIn profile. He served for eight years in the U.S. Army.

Pittsburgh police said they hired Jacobs on Feb. 2, 2015 as a recruit, at a starting salary of $29,619. He served through Dec. 18, 2017, leaving as an officer with a $63,856 salary.

The City of Pittsburgh settled a federal civil rights suit alleging excessive force against several of its officers, including Jacobs. The plaintiff, Daniel Adelman, alleged that the officers repeatedly hit him and slammed his head into the pavement during a 2017 arrest outside PPG Paints Arena. Cell phone footage of the incident was shared widely online.

The city settled for $47,000. In 2019, then-Mayor Bill Peduto told TribLive news partner WTAE that the payment was not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing.

Pittsburgh police declined to comment on that case or Jacobs’ departure from the force the same year.

The Shepherd incident

Shepherd — who had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder — had been hospitalized three times since November, the complaint said.

Local police were summoned to his house on Jan. 7 to involuntarily commit him to a psychiatric hospital.

When police knocked on the front door, Shepherd refused to answer, then pushed a kitchen knife through a plywood board that covered a broken window near that door, police have said.

“Shepherd’s use of the knife was a symptom of his mental health condition,” the amended federal lawsuit said. “He thought the officers were there to harm him, and he used the knife defensively to ward off a perceived threat rather than to assault the officers.”

About 20 officers from the South Hills regional SWAT team were called to the scene, the complaint said. They positioned three snipers around the house, deployed a drone and evacuated several nearby houses, the complaint said.

After a lengthy stand-off, police launched tear gas into Shepherd’s home and he walked out through the garage door, the complaint said.

Then, officers shot him.

Cellphone footage recorded by neighbors in the last moments of the five-hour police encounter and reviewed by TribLive revealed that officers fired at least a dozen shots.

The three South Hills police chiefs whose officers fatally shot Shepherd later told the state Office of Open Records that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has determined the shooting was justified.

Zappala’s office repeatedly has declined to corroborate these statements.

No criminal charges have been filed against the officers.