No charges in shooting death of Peter Bernardo Spencer under Stand Your Ground law
The unidentified shooter, a white man from Mercer County, claims he acted in self-defense
The man who confessed to fatally shooting Jamaican immigrant Peter Bernardo Spencer during a camping trip in Pennsylvania last year will not face charges under the state’s Stand Your Ground law.
As reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, authorities will not charge Spencer’s former co-worker, who admitted to shooting the victim multiple times on Dec. 12, 2021, at his father’s cabin in Rockland Township in Venango County. The county is about an hour and a half from Pittsburgh.
The unidentified shooter, a white man from Mercer County, claims he acted in self-defense because Spencer, 29, became erratic and threatened to shoot the other guests, authorities said.
“We believe in this case that there is enough evidence presented for self-defense that we are not going to be able to overcome our burden and show this was not self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, and for that reason, there will be no charges filed against the suspect in this case,” District Attorney Shawn White told reporters Tuesday, ABC News reports.
“This is my call,” he added. “I believe it’s the right one.”
Spencer’s family previously described his killing as a “modern-day lynching,” and had been critical of investigators’ handling of the case.
The shooter invited several of his friends to his dad’s camp for a getaway weekend. Spencer was not personally acquainted with any of them. TheGrio previously reported that the other guests were two white men and a white woman.
On the day of the shooting, the group spent hours drinking, cooking food, and getting high on marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms. Spencer brought his AK-47 on the trip and at one point began shooting in the air and demanding the others help gather wood for the fire pit, White said.
According to the district attorney’s statement, Spencer became erratic and shouted that he “was a god” and “creator, master and manipulator of his own reality.” He continued firing shots in the air, and the shooter attempted to de-escalate the situation but Spencer refused to calm down. He allegedly told one of the guests to “get on the ground and kneel” after refusing to gather more firewood, per the DA’s statement. He also threatened to “shoot up the place.”
That’s when the unidentified shooter grabbed his 9mm handgun from a nearby table and shot Spencer nine times. He died face down.
The Gazette reported that people at a neighboring camp heard multiple gunshots fired. Their report and evidence at the scene led authorities to believe that witnesses, who were interviewed separately, were telling the truth.
The shooter also called 911 afterward once he moved to an area where he could receive cell service, according to the report.
There is a possibility of federal charges, ABC News reports. That would be determined by federal prosecutor Cindy Chung who is the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The state’s hate crimes unit was consulted in the case, but said “no hate or bias” was detected.
“If you want to know from a federal standpoint whether there’s any hate crime, I’m not competent to testify to that or give you an answer,” White told the outlet. “That’s her jurisdiction, she’s aware of the facts. Give her office a call.”
The family had a leading pathologist study Spencer’s autopsy and says that he’s not as sure about the official findings.
“My initial thought is that it’s absurd to talk about self-defense with nine gunshot wounds,” Dr. Cyril Wecht, who assisted Spencer’s family during the investigation, previously told The Philadelphia Inquirer. He concluded that many of the nine bullets entered Spencer’s body from behind.
In a statement, Paul Jubas, the Spencer family attorney, said he and Dr. Wecht will address the White’s decision in a news conference.
“Until that time, we ask everyone to please respect Peter’s family by giving them the space they deserve to continue the healing process during this incredibly difficult time,” Jubas wrote.
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