Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele has cleared an Upper Perk Police officer with wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of an East Greenville man in September.
In a release Friday afternoon, Steele said an investigation determined the shooting of Gabriel Diaz, 55, on Sept. 14 was a lawful use of force under the law.
The investigation was undertaken by Montgomery County Detectives, as is protocol with any officer-involved shooting in the county. According to Steele, the investigation included scene analysis, ballistic evidence, witness statements, and interviews with law enforcement on scene.
“Given the attendant circumstances, our investigation found that this use of lethal force was justified under the law,” said Steele.
First responders reported to the 100 block of Cherry Street in East Greenville Saturday, Sept. 14 just after 8 p.m., according to police.
A physical altercation was going on between a father and son, said reports. The 18-year-old son called emergency dispatch, according to a release from the Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, and the father, Diaz, then barricaded himself in the basement of the family’s home, where he had access to knives.
Police said he’d threatened law enforcement, was armed with a machete and an axe, and threatened to blow up the house.
East Greenville Police requested assistance from Pennsylvania State Police, Upper Perk, Douglass Township, New Hanover, and Lower Salford police departments, Steele said. Family members were also evacuated from the home.
After several hours of negotiating with the man, Steele said that police breached the basement door at 11:30 p.m. Finding him with bladed weapons in each hand, police first tried to taze the charging Diaz, but that did not slow him, police said.
At that time, an Upper Perk police officer discharged his firearm twice, shooting Diaz. He was pronounced dead at the scene just after midnight early Sunday morning.
At 2:50 a.m., according to Darby, the coroner’s office was notified of the officer-involved shooting which resulted in Diaz’s death. A supervisor deputy and transporter responded to the scene around 3:30 a.m., said Darby’s release, which was provided to media Monday evening.
Darby’s Coroner’s Office is charged with identifying the deceased, ensuring that the legal next-of-kin is notified of the death, and determining the cause and manner of death through investigation, examination, and forensic testing, said the release.
Diaz’s cause of death was determined to be multiple gunshot wounds, one in the chest and one in the shoulder. The manner of his death was homicide.
In Pennsylvania, the use of deadly force by a law enforcement officer is governed by Section 508 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code. A law enforcement officer is “justified in using deadly force only when he believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury to himself or such other person,” Steele said.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
