Monday, April 29, 2019

Authorities still silent on details of New Hope police-involved shooting

Posted March 19, 2019

More than two weeks after a New Hope police officer shot a man, no new information has been released as of Tuesday.
New Hope Police Chief Michael Cummings said Tuesday that all information would be coming from the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office. A DA spokesman said Tuesday there was no new information to be released.
“We’ve been waiting ourselves for several weeks now, to see what their determination is on this,” Cummings said. “Until that happens, we’ve been advised not to say anything.”
The only information released so far is that an officer fired his weapon during an altercation, striking a man who was then taken to the hospital. The man was reportedly injured, but no update on his medical condition has been released by either New Hope police or the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, whose county detectives are investigating the incident.
Details including the identity of the person shot, where the shooting took place, circumstances surrounding the shooting, the name of the officer involved and if the officer is still on duty have not been released. The county DA or police have released such basic information within days after police-involved shootings in the past.
District Attorney Matt Weintraub, who ultimately will determine if the shooting was justified, responded to an email Tuesday stating that his office has been busy prepping and prosecuting two complex murder trials simultaneously, the 2018 double-murder in Winder Village and the sentencing trial for murderer Jacob Sullivan, who is facing a potential death penalty for the rape, murder and dismemberment of 14-year-old Grace Packer in 2017.
Weintraub personally is prosecuting the Sullivan case.
“This has stretched us very thinly personnel-wise,” Weintraub wrote. “My policy is to gather all the evidence, all the reports, and then make a determination at that time. I will need time to do this, as I’ve been in trial myself.”
Since 2009, at least 12 police-involved shootings have occurred in Bucks County; after investigating, the District Attorney’s Office ruled all were justified, including another 2012 non-fatal incident involving New Hope police that left a man paralyzed with a bullet in his spine.
In that earlier shooting, New Hope police claimed that Steven Cabelus answered the door to his apartment with a gun in his hand when police arrived to serve him with an involuntary psychiatric commitment warrant. The DA’s investigation found Cabelus pointed the gun at officers, refused to drop the gun and appeared to be moving toward them, prompting an officer to shoot him.
Cabelus disputed the DA’s version of events leading up to the shooting. In 2014 he filed a federal lawsuit against the borough and five police officers, which was settled a year later for $500,000, documents show.

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