Grand jury: Fatal police shooting in Glorieta justified
Posted at: 10/02/2012 8:02 AM
| Updated at: 10/02/2012 8:52 AM
By: Joe Vigil, Eyewitness News 4
A Grand jury has ruled that a fatal police shooting in Glorieta last October in which State Police officer Ray White shot and killed Sam Pauly at his Glorieta home was justified.
District Attorney Angela Pacheco says State Police officers arrived on scene to talk to Dan Pauly Jr. about a road rage incident.
However, Pacheco says when officers showed up, Dan and his brother Sam Pauly armed themselves.
Pacheco says officers identified themselves as State Police officers and told the men to come out of the home.
Pacheco says Dan Pauly later told police he heard something but didn't know officers were outside.
Pacheco says Dan Pauly fired a shotgun twice into the air out the back of the home to frighten away the people outside.
She says Pauly thought people in the road rage incident might have been outside.
"He was yelling, 'We have guns, go away,"" said Pacheco.
Pacheco says Sam Pauly then fired out a front window at Officer White.
Officer White returned fire, killing Sam Pauly.
Pauly family attorney Dan Cron told KOB Eyewitness News 4 Monday that if State Police had driven their vehicle with their lights on up to the Pauly residence, they would have known police were outside.
"This incident would have never happened," said Cron.
State Police Chief Robert Shilling told KOB Eyewitness News 4 the grand jury made the right call. He says it's easy to armchair-quarterback something like this, but says people were not in the officer's shoes when the split second decision was made.
Dan Pauly was facing felony charges in the incident, but those charges have been dropped.
 |
Tweet |
|
