Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Crime & Justice

  • A Lower Pottsgrove man knocked on the wrong door. A cop killed him, thinking he was a burglar.

    A Lower Pottsgrove man knocked on the wrong door. A cop killed him, thinking he was a burglar.

    When Erin Pysher dropped her son off Saturday at Frankie & Johnnie’s, the Pottstown bar where one of his friends was celebrating his 21st birthday, she told him she loved him and to be safe.

    It was Glenwood Pysher IV’s last weekend of summer fun. Come Monday, he would be at St. Elizabeth University in North Jersey for his senior year and one final season as a college baseball catcher.

    Pysher, affectionately called “Bubba” by those who knew the 22-year-old Lower Pottsgrove native best, had his sights set on becoming a history teacher and baseball coach after graduation.

    But he never made it home.

    After the bar, Pysher and his friends headed to an after-party at the birthday boy’s home, according to his mother. Later, as Pysher walked to another friend’s house to spend the night, he missed a turn and got separated from the group.

    He ended up at the wrong house on Snyder Road, pounding on a door and yelling to be let into what he did not realize was a stranger’s home.

    An Upper Pottsgrove police officer, responding to a 911 call for a reported break-in, shot him twice, killing him almost instantly.

    The shooting is under investigation by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. A spokesperson for District Attorney Kevin Steele declined to provide any additional details or to identify the officer, citing the investigation.

    “It was a senseless loss, and it shouldn’t have happened,” Erin Pysher said, her voice cracking with emotion. “I don’t know what the officer was thinking or doing that his first response was to shoot an unarmed kid.

    “This was all a huge mistake, and they killed him.”

    Glenwood Pysher IV was the oldest of four, his mother said. She described him as a lovable, goofy son who spent his summers in between college working.Courtesy Erin Pysher

    She said she reviewed her son’s cell phone logs and saw that he had called his friends to pick him up at 12:32 a.m. Sunday after realizing his error. By 12:35, the police-radio call had come out that the officer had shot someone.

    Pysher’s friends later told his parents that as they drove to get him, the officer sped past them, lights and sirens activated.

    “There was no attempt to stop him another way,” his mother said. “He never got into a fight in his life, never harmed a soul. I don’t believe he had any ill intention toward the officer.”

    Pysher was the oldest of four, a lovable, goofy son who, she said, spent most of his summers working at the Walmart store in Pottstown or helping a friend at his seasonal landscaping business.

    She laughed while retelling one of her final days spent with him: He had a habit of texting her every day, even while away at college, asking, “What’s for dinner?”

    Last week, he joined her for a grocery run for ingredients for that night’s meal. When they got home, Erin Pysher still got that usual text from her son, even as he sat a few feet away from her.

    “As a mom, I couldn’t ask for a better kid,” she said.

    “All these news reports keep saying, ‘A man was killed,’” she added. “But he wasn’t a man, not to me. He’ll always be my baby.”

  • Man in Halloween mask accused of menacing people near City Hall arrested in Las Vegas

    Man in Halloween mask accused of menacing people near City Hall arrested in Las Vegas

    A 22-year-old man accused of menacing pedestrians near City Hall while wearing a Halloween mask earlier this month was arrested in Las Vegas, the U.S. Marshals Service said Tuesday night.

    Zymire Hughes was being held at the Clark County Detention Center awaiting extradition proceedings, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

    Hughes gained national attention when viral images circulated online showing him allegedly wearing a mask resembling a cracked porcelain doll with a baby face. Masks advertised for Halloween that look very similar to what Hughes allegedly wore are available for sale on both Amazon and eBay.

    On the morning of Aug. 12, a man in the mask — which some also have described as resembling Chucky from the movie Child’s Play — harassed and scared more than a dozen people near City Hall, authorities said, including a 40-year-old woman who was injured when she fell while running from the masked man.

    Hughes allegedly harassed around 16 people during a half-hour period that morning, authorities said.

    At one point, he allegedly harassed a woman who was jogging and asked her if she was “ready to die,” police said.

    Hughes eventually rode a bus to his apartment near 23rd and Venango Streets, authorities said. He later left his apartment with packed bags, and police suspected he was heading to Los Angeles or Las Vegas, where he is believed to have connections through an employer.

    Investigators did not believe he intended to physically harm those he harassed, given that he did not produce a weapon during any of the interactions, authorities said.

  • Ex-Sharon Hill cop pleads guilty to trading confidential information for cocaine from dealer

    Ex-Sharon Hill cop pleads guilty to trading confidential information for cocaine from dealer

    A former Sharon Hill police detective admitted Tuesday that he provided confidential information to a drug dealer in exchange for cocaine, using his inside knowledge as a member of the Delaware County Drug Task Force to help the man evade arrest.

    Vincent Procopio pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a computer, criminal use of a communication facility, hindering apprehension, and related crimes. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Deborah Krull on Oct. 7.

    His attorney, Meaghan Wagner, said after the hearing that Procopio accepted responsibility for his actions as a means of continuing “to move forward in a positive direction in his life.”

    “Meanwhile he continues to work on his sobriety every day and celebrates eight months sober on Sept. 7,” she said.

    Before he resigned after his arrest in April, Procopio, 34, of Newtown Square, had worked for Sharon Hill for four years. He was at Academy Park High School on the night 8-year-old Fanta Bility was killed by a stray bullet amid a shooting caused by three of his colleagues.

    Procopio and the dealer, whom investigators did not identify, met through mutual friends in 2025, according to court filings. The dealer told police Procopio approached him, saying he “wanted in” on his drug-smuggling operation.

    Over the course of the next year, the dealer would give Procopio $100 baggies of cocaine in exchange for information from police databases, including whether undercover officers planned to make drug busts in the area where he was operating, and whether there were any warrants for his arrest.

    The narcotics, prosecutors said, were for Procopio’s personal use and “wholly unrelated to his law enforcement duties.”

    The scheme unraveled when the dealer was pulled over in Chester in December with 63 grams of cocaine in his car. He called Procopio for help, and Procopio made calls on his behalf, telling officers in Chester the man was a friend and was in the process of signing up to become a confidential informant.

    Procopio later told investigators he knew the man had sold drugs, but said he had recently stopped. He said he never saw the dealer sell cocaine and had never bought cocaine from him.

    Prosecutors said that Procopio’s statement was a lie, and that Procopio had deleted text messages between him and the dealer that made that clear.

    Procopio and the dealer had developed a jocular relationship, they said. On the day they met, the detective snorted a line of cocaine with the dealer inside his truck. He later went to the man’s home, where they “stayed up all night doing cocaine,” according to the affidavit of probable cause for Procopio’s arrest.

    The two regularly exchanged text messages, including one in which the detective, on his way to Sunday Mass, asked the dealer for a bag of cocaine.

    And Procopio instructed the man to tell any police officer who stopped him that he was the detective’s cousin, prosecutors said.

    In a statement announcing Procopio’s arrest earlier this year, State Attorney General Dave Sunday, whose office is prosecuting the case, decried Procopio’s actions, saying his “selfish, criminal acts also stain the reputations of many public servants who make sacrifices for their communities every day across the Commonwealth.”

    As part of the same investigation, another Sharon Hill officer, Domenic Dellabarba Jr., was arrested for allegedly providing confidential information to the dealer.

    Dellabarba, 27, is charged with obstructing the administration of the law and related crimes, and his case is pending in Delaware County Court.

  • A Delco firefighter was convicted of making racist threats for calling a woman the N-word during an argument

    A Delco firefighter was convicted of making racist threats for calling a woman the N-word during an argument

    A Delaware County volunteer fire chief was convicted of ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats, and related crimes for calling a woman the N-word, among other slurs, during a tense encounter in 2024.

    John Romano, 48, said the woman was “a wild animal,” according to police body camera footage played during his trial last month before Judge Margaret J. Amoroso, who handed down her verdict Monday.

    Romano, the assistant fire chief at the Sharon Hill Fire Company, also said he was “tired of dealing with them,” the footage showed.

    District Attorney Tanner Rouse said that Romano’s conviction “is an important reminder that words have consequences.”

    Delco officials condemn hatred as firefighter accused of yelling racist slurs faces criminal charges. Here’s what you need to know.

    “What happened in this case was not an argument between two people,” Rouse said. “It was a disturbing encounter involving racial slurs, intimidation, threats, and behavior that left someone fearing for their safety. No one should have to endure this kind of treatment, plain and simple.”

    Romano and the woman crossed paths on Hook Road in Darby Township in November 2024, while Romano was using a forklift to unload Christmas trees. His forklift, the woman testified, was blocking the road, causing a traffic jam of irritated drivers who were honking their horns.

    After the car in front of hers squeezed through a small gap near the forklift, the woman said, Romano got out of the forklift, “rushed” to the passenger-side window of her car, and demanded to know why she was honking at him.

    From the outset, she said, Romano was “on full-blast rage.”

    He called her the N-word, as well as another slur, she said, and took a picture of her license plate, telling her he would “take care” of her at her home. When she said she was calling the police, Romano told her to do so, saying he knew the county sheriff.

    Romano’s attorney, Christopher Boggs, said in his closing arguments that the confrontation was “more akin to a road-rage incident” and was not a case of ethnic intimidation.

    Romano, upset at the car horns honking, would have said “awful things to anyone in that circumstance,” he said.

    Amoroso is expected to sentence Romano on Sept. 28.

  • Lower Merion school board member stole $50K from employer to fund vacations, clothing, and a friend’s bar mitzvah video, DA says

    Lower Merion school board member stole $50K from employer to fund vacations, clothing, and a friend’s bar mitzvah video, DA says

    A member of the Lower Merion School District Board of Directors embezzled more than $50,000 from the marketing agency where she works, prosecutors said Monday, and spent the money on family vacations, clothing, and a videographer to film a friend’s son’s bar mitzvah.

    Jennifer Rivera, 41, has been charged with theft, receiving stolen property, and related crimes in the theft from SMB Team, a Bala Cynwyd firm that helps lawyers advertise to prospective clients.

    She was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. Rivera could not be reached for comment, and there was no indication she had hired an attorney.

    Representatives of SMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Rivera used a company credit card issued to her to make the purchases, which began in October, when she had a dress and a bathroom organizer shipped to her home, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.

    Jennifer Rivera (second from left) paid for her family’s vacations using a credit card given to her by her employer, SMB Team, which Montgomery County prosecutors say was a violation of company policy.Denali Sagner / Staff

    In a statement Monday, Lower Merion school board president Kerry Sautner emphasized that none of the criminal charges Rivera faces are related to the district or its finances.

    “As of this time, I have not had an opportunity to discuss Ms. Rivera’s future on the School Board with her,” Sauter said. “While it is important to note that anyone charged with a crime remains innocent until proven guilty, we must also consider the potential impact of this situation on our Board.”

    Rivera was elected to the school board in November, alongside Sauter, as part of the ElectLMSD Democratic slate.

    Her theft from her employer was uncovered in May, when a senior vice president at SMB found that she had used the company card to pay a coworker nearly $1,400 through Venmo, the affidavit said.

    When questioned, prosecutors said, she lied and said it was a business expense.

    But her coworker, who owns a private videography business, told company officials the payment was for a “last-minute” bar mitzvah gig he agreed to do after the original videographer canceled. He said Rivera told him he had paid her from her personal account, but he realized afterward she had used company money.

    He said he knew it was “shady” and was “not sure how she could be so blatantly untruthful,” according to the affidavit.

    The coworker said Rivera also used the company card to fly him and his wife to another employee’s wedding, where he was hired to take photos. He said Rivera assured him she was allowed to use the company card for that, according to the affidavit.

    After being presented with evidence about the bar mitzvah payment, Rivera said she may have used the wrong Venmo account by mistake. She “became distraught” and said the accusations put her in a “dark place,” the affidavit said.

    Rivera was placed on administrative leave, but asked to be fired, saying “the waiting is adding stress,” the affidavit said.

    As SMB continued to investigate, the company learned that Rivera had also spent more than $25,000 for airline travel and family vacations, according to the affidavit.

    At the time of the investigation, Rivera had booked a forthcoming trip to the Bahamas that was worth more than $9,000 in credit card travel points.

    Rivera is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 2.

  • A man who tried to hire a hit man to kill a rival was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison

    A man who tried to hire a hit man to kill a rival was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison

    Not long after Xin Guang-Go’s skill game business in North Philadelphia collapsed — a development that led to tension between him and his onetime business partner — Guang-Go decided he wanted his former colleague to die.

    To follow through on his threat, Guang-Go sought to hire a hit man — supplying the man with his target’s address, pictures of his intended victim’s car and home, as well as a cash deposit and a tip about where his rival might be storing about $100,000 in a safe.

    Guang-Go said the hit man could keep that money as long as the murder was carried out. And he also asked that his target’s girlfriend be killed in the process. For both killings, Guang-Go was willing to pay $30,000.

    But unknown to Guang-Go, the hit man he tried to hire was working as a confidential informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Guang-Go was arrested before either of his victims was harmed.

    In federal court Monday, Guang-Go, 48, of Plymouth, N.C., was ordered to serve more than 15 years in prison for seeking to carry out his scheme — a plot that U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III said was one of the most serious crimes a person could commit.

    “It’s totally unacceptable to settle a business dispute by entering into a contract to have your opponent murdered,” Bartle said.

    Guang-Go apologized, saying he had been consumed by impulses he now recognizes were wrong.

    It was “as if there was evil in my heart,” he said through an interpreter. “Evil was controlling my brain.”

    Neither of Guang-Go’s victims appeared in court Monday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda McCool said both remain traumatized by his attempt on their lives.

    She said Guang-Go was not simply an unlucky or bumbling criminal who made a deal with the wrong source. He fully intended for his victims to die, she said — and in court documents, prosecutors said he had asked his would-be hired killer to provide photographic proof that the victims had been slain.

    “This is not some one-off of the defendant, that [he] ran into someone who suggested” the plot, McCool said. “Throughout the course of a week, he made multiple proactive steps to further his plan.”

    Guang-Go — who pleaded guilty this spring to murder-for-hire offenses — said that he had brought shame to his entire family through his actions, and that he regretted his prison sentence would take him away from his children and his aging mother.

    In addition to ordering Guang-Go to 188 months behind bars, Bartle imposed a three-year term of supervised release.

    Guang-Go, a native of China and a legal permanent resident of the United States, is likely to be deported whenever his term of incarceration is finished.

  • Two dead in weekend shootings, even as city’s homicide decline continues

    Two dead in weekend shootings, even as city’s homicide decline continues

    Two men were killed in separate shootings over the weekend in Philadelphia, police said, adding to the homicide toll in the city even as it continues to see a sharp decline in deadly violence.

    The killings occurred within hours of each other late Saturday and early Sunday. Investigators have not publicly identified the victims or released a motive in either shooting. No arrests have been made.

    Police continue to investigate, said Officer Shawn Ritchie, a police spokesperson.

    The first shooting was reported shortly before midnight Saturday near Wakeling and Jackson Streets in the Frankford section of Northeast Philadelphia. Responding officers found a 64-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the face, police said.

    He was pronounced dead at the scene.

    Officers detained a 39-year-old man for questioning and recovered two handguns at the scene, police said. The man had not been charged as of Monday afternoon, according to police.

    Several hours later, shortly after 5 a.m., officers were called to the 3200 block of Kensington Avenue for a report of a person with a gun. When they arrived, police said, they found a 35-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds to his back, chest, and right leg.

    The man was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

    The Kensington shooting occurred along a stretch of the avenue that has long been associated with the city’s open-air drug trade, but police have not said whether the killing was connected to any activity in the area.

    Despite the two weekend killings, Philadelphia’s homicide total remains significantly lower than in recent years. By the same time last year, the city had recorded 146 homicides, and 176 in 2024, according to police data. As of Sunday, the data show, the city has logged 117 homicides this year.

    Both shootings remain under investigation, police said. Anyone with information about either killing is asked to contact the police department’s tip line at 215-686-8477 (TIPS). A reward of up to $20,000 is available for information leading to an arrest and conviction, police said.

  • Masked men used an AR-15-style rifle to rob three people in Center City this weekend, police say

    Masked men used an AR-15-style rifle to rob three people in Center City this weekend, police say

    Masked men armed with handguns and what appeared to be an AR-15-style rifle robbed three men early Sunday morning in Center City, forcing at least one of the victims to his knees at gunpoint, according to police.

    The victims — ages 27, 35, and 36 — were talking on the sidewalk around 3 a.m. on the 1500 block of Locust Street when three robbers stepped out of a gray Hyundai sedan and demanded the men’s belongings, said 9th District Capt. Anthony Ganard.

    Two of the men complied, police said, but the third resisted, and one of the robbers hit him in the face with a handgun. He was taken to an area hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, Ganard said.

    The assailants took cell phones, watches, car keys, wallets, driver’s licenses, and cash, police said.

    No arrests have been made.

    Surveillance video reviewed by investigators shows one of the victims on his knees on the sidewalk as two of the robbers pointed guns — including what appeared to be an assault rifle — at his head. The video shows the victim handing over cash and the watch on his right wrist before the robbers ran back toward the Hyundai, Ganard said.

    “It’s always concerning, any type of robbery involving a firearm, [but] especially when you have a high-powered-style firearm,” Ganard said at a news conference Monday.

    Police believe a fourth man acted as the getaway driver and remained in the Hyundai during the robbery.

    The Hyundai had been circling the area for about three hours before the robbery, Ganard said. It was unclear Monday whether the men were targeted or victims of a random crime, he added.

    The sedan, which police recovered early Monday morning, had been stolen from Cheltenham Township on Wednesday, Ganard said. He declined to say where the car was found.

    Detectives are examining the vehicle for evidence and searching for additional surveillance footage that may have captured the robbery. Investigators have not linked the men to any other similar robberies, Ganard said.

    The investigation remains active, police said.

    Anyone with information is encouraged to contact investigators at the department’s tip line, 215-686-8477 (TIPS).

  • Six Coatesville men sentenced to prison, two for life, in an ill-fated revenge plot that left a friend dead

    Six Coatesville men sentenced to prison, two for life, in an ill-fated revenge plot that left a friend dead

    In August 2023, Dametrius “Meechie” McClain-Jackson had a path out of Coatesville, his family said Friday. He was just days away from returning to Lycoming College for his sophomore year and playing for the school’s football team.

    Instead, he got caught up in a cycle of violence that Chester County Chief Deputy District Attorney Andrea Cardamone said is all too common in the community.

    McClain-Jackson, along with six of his friends, armed themselves with guns and sought revenge for being disrespected. But the only casualty was McClain-Jackson, killed accidentally by one of his coconspirators.

    And on Friday, nearly three years to the day after the fatal shooting, all six surviving members of the conspiracy were sentenced to state prison by Chester County Court Judge Alita Rovito.

    “There is this idea that what it means to be a man, what it means to be tough, to be worthy of respect, is to carry a gun,” Cardamone said. “It’s a tragic view that leads to too many young people killed, and it victimizes the entire city of Coatesville.”

    At its core, Friday’s hours-long hearing was about the two men who prosecutors said were most culpable: Victor Lara-Ortiz, one of the gunmen involved in the shooting, and Zaire Harley, who supplied weapons to the group and then drove them through the city, searching for their intended target.

    For their roles, both men were sentenced to life in prison.

    Lara-Ortiz, 22, and Harley, 23, were convicted of first-degree murder earlier this year under the legal principle of transferred intent. Though they were looking to attack Elijah Green, a criminal rival, they accidentally killed McClain-Jackson.

    Some of McClain-Jackson’s family took turns Friday addressing his friends, expressing shock and outrage that men who grew up with him would be involved with his death.

    “That night, people I consider family were there, people I trusted my life with,” McClain-Jackson’s sister Lyamoni Jones said through her tears. “But I couldn’t trust them with my brother’s life.”

    Samaria Turner said her brother’s murder has left a “Meechie-sized hole that can never be filled.”

    “My brother wasn’t perfect; nobody is,” she said. “But I should not be speaking about him in the past tense. I should remember what his voice sounds like without having to watch a video of him.”

    It was unclear who fired the fatal shot, and prosecutors were unable to recover any of the guns wielded by the group that night.

    The group’s animosity toward Green began on Instagram, after he posted a video taking credit for a shooting weeks earlier that wounded Harley and another man, and taunted them for not retaliating. It reached its peak hours before the fatal shooting, authorities said, when Green confronted another member of the group, Quadir Lavender, and threatened to kill him.

    The four others involved in the fatal shooting — Markel Jones, 23; Richard Rochester-Cottle, 24; Lavender, 19; and Gary White, 22 — pleaded guilty in the months leading up to the trial and testified for the prosecution.

    Rochester-Cottle and White pleaded guilty to conspiracy and third-degree murder, while the others pleaded guilty to manslaughter, conspiracy, and related crimes.

    The sentences for the four other defendants varied, from 5 to 10 years in prison to as much as 10 to 21 years. Rovito noted that they each played a specific, and different, role in the ill-fated shooting.

    “You knew guns kill. You knew none of you should’ve had them and you know you can’t take this back,” she said. “I hope a day doesn’t go by where you don’t think of Meechie and tell him you’re sorry.”

    The group rode together on Aug. 23, 2023, in a Chevrolet Traverse that Rochester-Cottle had stolen from a Sheetz store in Berks County in search of Green, according to testimony. The car’s owner had also left his loaded .308 handgun inside the vehicle. That gun, witnesses told police, would later be used by Lara-Ortiz during the shooting.

    When they found Green and his friends in the driveway of a home on Community Lane, Lara-Ortiz, McClain-Jackson, Rochester-Cottle, and White got out of the vehicle, prosecutors said. All but White opened fire — having second thoughts, he fled, running all the way home without firing a single shot, according to prosecutors.

    One of the bullets struck McClain-Jackson in the back and hit his lungs. He was later pronounced dead at Paoli Hospital.

    Rochester-Cottle and Lavender, horrified at what happened to their friend, stayed behind with him to call 911 and ensure medics would find him. That gesture earned them some leniency from Rovito, who also gave credit to Jones for calling McClain-Jackson’s family to notify them of what happened.

    But Lara-Ortiz and Harley showed no remorse, prosecutors said, and made calculated moves to hide their involvement, including fleeing to Lincoln University in an attempt to create a false alibi.

    They even lied to McClain-Jackson’s mother, telling her they had no idea what had happened to him. And later, when he learned that White was cooperating with police, Lara-Ortiz allegedly sent him death threats.

    Rovito admonished them both for their callousness.

    “This really is so, so senseless,” she said. “This was a waste of seven lives, and you both actively worked to hide the truth.”

    Prosecutors pointed out that Lara-Ortiz’s involvement in the shooting came six months after he professed to a different Chester County judge that he would stop carrying illegal guns, and would seek a life away from crime.

    He made that promise after being sentenced to five years of probation in the death of his younger brother, Roman Aguilar-Ortiz, who accidentally killed himself with a loaded Glock handgun that Lara-Ortiz had left unsecured in his bedroom.

  • Video shows altercation before off-duty Philadelphia officer was killed

    Video shows altercation before off-duty Philadelphia officer was killed

    Seconds before an off-duty Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed outside a Southwest Philadelphia nightclub, he was involved in a confrontation with the man who police believe fired the fatal shot, according to a surveillance video under review by department investigators.

    The video captures a previously unseen part of the encounter that preceded the Aug. 16 killing of Officer Alhassane Barry, 29. But it does not show the shooting itself, leaving critical questions unanswered.

    Police spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp confirmed Friday that the department is reviewing the video as part of its investigation. But he declined to comment further, citing an “active homicide investigation.”

    No charges had been filed against the alleged shooter as of Friday afternoon.

    The newly surfaced video footage, which was obtained and reviewed by The Inquirer, appears to show Barry leaving Nipsey’s Hookah Lounge with the man police have identified as a suspect in the killing and a third man who has not been publicly identified.

    Barry is seen in the video moving toward the alleged shooter, who is then struck twice in the head by the third man. The blows appear to knock him out of the camera’s view.

    Barry and the third man then run in the same direction, also disappearing off screen.

    A few seconds later, Barry comes back into view, falling onto the sidewalk outside the nightclub. He appears to be bleeding from a gunshot wound to his abdomen.

    Police had said they responded to a report of gunfire shortly before 4 a.m. Aug. 16 on the 7200 block of Elmwood Avenue. Officers found Barry and a 35-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds.

    Both were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where Barry was pronounced dead at about 8 a.m. The other man, who had been shot multiple times, was critically injured.

    It was unclear Friday whether the 35-year-old victim was one of the men in the surveillance camera footage.

    The footage comes as investigators try to determine what led to the shooting of the off-duty officer and whether the circumstances warrant criminal charges against the man police believe fired the fatal shot.

    Two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation said Friday that self-defense had become part of the discussion about whether charges would be appropriate. The sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the investigation had also not yet been referred by police to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office for review.

    Police previously said that Barry, the other critically injured victim, and the suspected shooter had been inside the after-hours lounge before the shooting. The men exchanged words inside, Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said earlier this week, and the verbal confrontation continued after they went outside. Police said the altercation then became physical before the men were separated and the suspect opened fire.

    The newly surfaced video appears to capture at least part of that physical confrontation. The video does not show what happened before the men exited the club. And because the shooting occurs off camera, it does not show the moments in which the man fired his gun.

    Investigators recovered a firearm and eight spent 9mm shell casings at the scene.

    Barry had been a Philadelphia police officer for two years and was assigned to the 12th District in Southwest Philadelphia. Before joining the department, he served for a decade in the Pennsylvania National Guard, including a two-year deployment to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and left the Army as a sergeant, according to an Army spokesperson.

    His killing prompted a funeral attended by more than 100 people at the Fouta Islamic Center of Philadelphia on Monday. Mourners and fellow officers remembered Barry as a young man devoted to public service.