Coroner No Longer Recommends Charges In Police Shooting

• Black Man Fatally Shot by Pittsburgh Housing Authority in March 2003

A man was shot and killed by Pittsburgh Housing Authority Police nearly two years ago. Wednesday, the coroner weighed in on new evidence in the case. A coroner is no longer recommending criminal charges against a Pittsburgh Housing Authority police officer who fatally shot a man in a housing project. But Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht also said Wednesday that new evidence uncovered since that March 2003 recommendation doesn't exonerate the three officers present when Bernard Rogers, 26, was shot in November 2002. Wecht originally recommended charges against Officer Tonyea Curry, saying some evidence didn't support police testimony that Rogers was shot as he struggled for Curry's weapon. A witness, Delfonte Ellis, has testified he saw another officer, Douglas Butler, shoot Rogers -- but only as he ran out of the apartment at the Bedford Dwellings housing complex and down a set of steps. But Wecht said ballistics evidence supports police claims that Rogers was shot in the apartment while he struggled with Curry for the officer's weapon. [more ]