A 22-year-old college baseball catcher described by relatives as devoted to the sport was fatally shot by police early Sunday after his family says he mistakenly went to the wrong home following a night out.
Glenwood “Bubba” Pysher had been celebrating a friend’s birthday Saturday night at a bar in Upper Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, before the group planned to continue the gathering at the friend’s house, his mother, Erin, told WPVI.
Pysher chose to walk there, his family said, but somehow arrived at a different address.
“He didn’t know that, so he was knocking on the door, saying, ‘Hey let me in,’ thinking it was his friend’s house, but it wasn’t,” Erin said.
The residents of the Snyder Road home contacted police to report what they believed could be a break-in. When officers arrived, they found Pysher behind the property, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
The encounter quickly turned deadly. Responding officers opened fire, striking Pysher twice and killing him, Erin told Fox 29.
Authorities have not publicly detailed what led officers to use deadly force, and it remains unclear whether Pysher posed any threat. His mother, however, questioned how quickly the situation escalated.
“12.32, he was on the phone with his friends,” she said. “By 12.35, I believe he’s already shot. So within a few minutes, the cop pulled up and shot him.”
Glenwood ‘Bubba’ Pysher, 22, was fatally shot by police officers in Upper Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania early Sunday morning
Pysher was gunned down outside a house on Snyder Road he had mistakenly thought was his friend’s house
She then went on to claim that her son was unarmed and was only carrying his cellphone and a book bag at the time.
The shooting was caught on surveillance cameras set up in the backyard of the property, with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office now combing through the video as part of an investigation into the officer-involved shooting.
But some in the community are already pressing for answers.
‘What happened? Could it have been de-escalated?’ family friend Kia asked, rhetorically. ‘We don’t know, but we want to figure that out.’
Wendy Hasara, another family friend, also called for ‘justice’ to be served and for Pysher’s death to ‘prevent this from ever happening to another person’ in a post on Facebook.
She recounted how Pysher worked at the local Walmart in his free time.
‘He often worked right up to [the] time he needed to leave for a game… worked then drove his non-AC car to even away games in the heat and then put on that hot catcher’s gear and played his heart out,’ Hasara wrote, calling Pysher a ‘life with a bright future, stolen too soon.’
He had been getting ready to play at Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey, to where he had recently transferred.
Pysher was remembered as a dedicated baseball catcher who worked at a Walmart
Pysher was been getting ready to play at Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey, to where he had recently transferred when he was killed
‘To see someone that has so much potential, because he was so excited about going back to school, lose their life, it hurts,’ Kia told Fox 29.
‘He was an amazing soul, young man, never got in any trouble, well-respected.’
Everyone in the community will now remember him for ‘his love for baseball and the joy he found in catching balls, something that brought so much pride to his father, mother, three sisters and the entire Pysher family,’ Anthony Napoli said in a statement.
‘Bubba meant so much to so many and his loss has deeply shaken all who loved him.’
Off the field, Pysher’s grieving mother said he was a ‘lovable goofball.’
‘He will walk in the backdoor and say his favorite thing, “Hey mom, your favorite kid is home,”‘ she said. ‘He was just happy-go-lucky, didn’t have a care in the world, and I’m going to miss that.’
The Montgomery County Detective Bureau is now investigating the officer-involved shooting.
