Background: The Snyder Road home in Upper Pottsgrove Township, Pennsylvania, where authorities say the shooting appears to have taken place (WPVI/YouTube). Inset: Glenwood “Bubba” Pysher IV (GoFundMe).
A night that began as a birthday outing in Pennsylvania ended in tragedy when a 22-year-old man, apparently thinking he had reached a friend’s home, knocked on the wrong door and was fatally shot by a police officer, according to his family and investigators.
The victim was identified as Glenwood “Bubba” Pysher IV in a GoFundMe page created for his family, which described his death as a “terrible accident.”
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele has confirmed that the Montgomery County Detective Bureau is now handling the investigation into the officer-involved shooting.
Pysher’s family told regional ABC affiliate WPVI that he had been out late Saturday celebrating a friend’s birthday at a bar. As the evening wound down, the group reportedly planned to continue the gathering at someone’s home.
According to his mother, Erin Pysher, her son chose to make the trip on foot.
His parents said he ended up at a residence on Snyder Road in Upper Pottsgrove Township, believing he had arrived at his friend’s house. The township sits in Montgomery County, roughly 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
But according to the family’s account, the home Pysher approached was apparently not connected to any of his friends.
He “ended up at the wrong house,” Erin Pysher told the TV station. “After having a few drinks, he didn’t know that, and so he was knocking on the back door saying, ‘Hey, let me in,’ thinking it was his friend’s house, but it wasn’t.”
The homeowners reportedly called 911 about “a possible attempted break-in,” and the Upper Pottsgrove Township Police Department was alerted. It is unclear how many officers responded, but at least one “arrived to find” Glenwood Pysher “in the rear of the residence,” the district attorney said.
“An encounter ensued and police fired at [Glenwood] Pysher, fatally striking him,” added Steele.
“At 12:32, he was on his phone with his friends. By 12:35, I believe he was already shot. So, within a few minutes, the cop showed up and shot him,” Erin Pysher stated. “He was unarmed. Had a cellphone and a book bag.”
The DA said the Montgomery County Detective Bureau responded to the scene and is investigating the shooting, as is “protocol for officer-involved shootings in the county.”
According to the fundraiser, Glenwood Pysher was “a promising young man, athlete, and scholar who loved his family dearly.” He was reportedly getting ready to play baseball at Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey.
“Everyone who knew him will remember 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,” the GoFundMe added.
The post Man shouting ‘Hey, let me in’ at what he thought was friend’s house is fatally shot by responding police: Prosecutors first appeared on Law & Crime.
