College baseball player shot dead by police after knocking on wrong door in Pennsylvania

Glenwood "Bubba" Pysher, 22, was fatally shot by an Upper Pottsgrove Township officer early Sunday after mistakenly going to the wrong house.

Pennsylvania student killed by police after mistaking neighbour's house for friend's

A 22-year-old college baseball player was shot and killed by a Pennsylvania police officer in the early hours of Sunday morning after mistakenly going to the wrong house, his parents told abcnews.com.

Glenwood "Bubba" Pysher was fatally struck at around 12:30 a.m. ET when an Upper Pottsgrove Township police officer encountered him on the back porch of a residence on Snyder Road. His parents said they learned the details from friends who had been with their son that night.

Pysher had been out bar-hopping with a group of friends celebrating a 21st birthday, his mother, Erin Pysher, told ABC News on Tuesday. When the group decided to continue the celebration at a friend's home, Pysher walked to what he believed was the correct address — but was not.

"He was walking down the road to what he thought was his friend's house. And after some drinks, he ended up walking in the dark at night. I guess he got mixed up, and he made a wrong turn and went to the wrong house," Erin Pysher said in a phone interview.

According to his mother, Pysher rang the doorbell, then went to the back of the house, knocked again and called out to his friends. When nobody answered, he rang them and sent a video of his location. His friends realised he was at the wrong address and set off to collect him.

"His friends were on the way to pick him up when the cops, they said, went flying by them," Erin Pysher said.

The homeowner had called 911 to report a possible attempted break-in. Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele confirmed in a social media statement that officers responded to that call and found Pysher at the rear of the property. "An encounter ensued and police fired at Pysher, fatally striking him," Steele said.

Surveillance cameras in the backyard recorded the deadly encounter, and the footage is being reviewed as part of the investigation, sources told ABC Philadelphia station WPVI. In line with Montgomery County protocol for officer-involved shootings, the Montgomery County Detective Bureau is leading the inquiry. The Upper Pottsgrove Township police spokesperson referred all questions to the District Attorney's Office.

Erin Pysher said the family has received very little information from police and has had to reconstruct the timeline largely through conversations with their son's friends and the call log on his mobile phone, to which his daughter had access.

"We have that he was on his phone from 12:32 a.m. to 12:33 talking to his friends. I believe that by 12:35, the dispatch had already come in saying there was a shooting," she said.

Two officers arrived at the family's home around 2 a.m. Erin Pysher said she initially assumed they were looking for her husband. It was only as she came back downstairs that she noticed the word "homicide" on one officer's shirt.

"I looked at him, and I said, 'Is it Glenwood?' And they told me he was shot twice by an Upper Pottsgrove police officer and killed," she said.

Pysher was a senior at Saint Elizabeth University in Morris Township, New Jersey, studying to become a history teacher. He had been due to begin the new school year the Monday after the shooting. His parents said that apart from a speeding ticket at the age of 16, he had no history of trouble with the law. He was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

"He was lovable," Erin Pysher said. "He was the kindest, sweetest person."

Source: Google News MT