A vigil was held Saturday night to remember a man shot by his neighbor and the off-duty SEPTA officer accused of killing him won’t face murder charges.
The victim's family is upset and experts say the decision may have been premature.
The argument between next-door neighbors in a Perkiomen Township community of half-million-dollar homes occurred Wednesday night.
The SEPTA sergeant, a 22-year force veteran, told investigators the other man threatened his life before the shooting at Miller and Ott Roads around 7:30p.m.
“I think he should serve time. I think it should be a first-degree murder rap for him,” said Rev. Lewis Nash, the victim's cousin.
Relatives are fuming over a decision not to charge the man who shot and killed their loved one, 38-year-old Joseph McNair.
“We want some real answers, and we will be up there by the thousands if we don't get them,” said Rev. Nash.
McNair's friends and family came out by the hundreds and held a vigil where they remembered their loss.
It's been three days since McNair got into a heated altercation with his neighbor, Darryl Simmons.
Simmons, an off-duty SEPTA police officer, told authorities he shot McNair in self-defense.
Neighbors came to Simmons' defense saying McNair, an ex-con, was a terror on the neighborhood.
And now, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office made its decision not to charge Simmons with murder, even though autopsy results are still out and State Police are still investigating.
But one legal expert questions whether that decision is premature.
“You would expect that they would have the information in front of you, evaluate it. It seems really impossible to make a really good judgment on whether it's first-degree murder or any other degree or whether it was self-defense without that information,” said Temple University Law Professor David Kirys.
Simmons' lawyer, Charles Mandracchia, told Fox 29 News he's content with the D.A.'s decision, and claims his client is innocent.
But that's not good enough for McNair's family, especially for his five children who say they're now forced to live life without their father.
“I just want justice for the situation. I mean, the guy was wrong for killing my father. We’re not getting justice. They just let him go,” said Diera Regan, the victim's daughter.
The District Attorney's Office can change its decision, because there is still evidence out there that can overturn all of this.
2 comments:
You will note that there was another somewhat similar shooting at the Willow Grove SEPTA train station (Montgomery County PA) in March 2006. The victim was unarmed and the shooter a LEO - an off-duty Philadelphia Police officer. The Montco DA didn't charge in that case either. As was the case with McNair and Simmons, one of the DA's press release on the killing of that unarmed person in 2006 went to great lengths to post the victim's photo and relate every bad thing about him possible as well as more than a few damning assumptions. That matter is allegedly still being investigated just like McNair's killing. What do you think? This very information about how the victim was a bad person, largely irrelevant in Court, was given by the DA to the media for the benefit of those who would be sitting on a jury if the DA was to prosecute. This is the very kind of information the DA would be trying to make sure was not introduced at trial if they prosecuted the shooter. Does it make sense to prejudice the jury pool against your own potential future prosecution? Does it make sense to do it with incorrect assumptions in the media? Why is it being done? McNair's shooting was reportedly captured on a telephone recording (see KYW news report). The 2006 shooting was also. In the tape of the 2006 shooting, the first, loudest, and clearest voice by far heard at the scene of the shooting a second before the firing of three shots says "_uck out the car pussy!" Guess who was holding the phone and how far away the victim was at the time of that utterance? Who's voice, very faint and at a extremely low volume, can be heard between the above quoted utterance and the 3 shots? I wonder what facts we still don't know about McNair and Simmons. From the sound of it McNair was shot in the back or at best the side while backing out of his car window. The DA learned of the reported (KYW) McNair recording only after the press release it seems. There has been nothing from the DA since then - over 5 weeks ago. Almost every other time, the press releases put up the shooter's face for all to see and all the bad things the shooter did. I don't know that it was "murder" with McNair and Simmons but I seriously wonder, like that 2006 shooting, what have we not been told about what really happened. Moreover, why are we not told about these things?
Here's the KYW report on the recording. Note it came after the DA's press release and then the later comment to the media about not seeking murder charges:
KYW Newsradio
Posted: Thursday, 25 September 2008 5:52AM
New Evidence Surfaces in Deadly Montco Neighbor Dispute
by KYW's Brad Segall
Some new evidence came to light as investigators were probing last week’s deadly shooting in Perkiomen Township, Pa. (Montgomery County).
Sources tell KYW Newsradio that there’s an audio tape of a phone call Joseph McNair made before he was shot and killed by his neighbor, an off-duty SEPTA police officer at a Schwenksville intersection (see related story).
Sources say McNair called a business in Philadelphia, and the voicemail system recorded some of the deadly confrontation. Sources also say there’s a lot of shouting on the tape and the gunshots are audible -- that tape was turned over to Philadelphia police who then gave it to Montgomery County investigators.
District attorney Risa Ferman would only say the investigation is continuing.
The transit officer told police he fired in self-defense after the two got into an argument.
Neighbors described McNair as a menace and bully who got into numerous confrontations.
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