SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — The Lehigh County Coroner’s Office on Friday ruled the fatal police shooting of a 73-year-old man in South Whitehall Township a homicide, though the district attorney has determined the shooting was justified.
Lehigh County Coroner Daniel A. Buglio said the ruling follows a joint investigation with the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office into the May 28 shooting of Gary J. Moyer at his home in the 100 block of North 38th Street.
“Homicide is defined as the killing of one person by another,” Buglio said in a statement. “This incident involved a police shooting, and while I am ruling the manner of death a homicide, District Attorney Gavin Holihan has determined that the shooting was justifiable.”
Buglio said the investigation concluded that Moyer acted in “a threatening manner with the intent to provoke law enforcement,” a situation often referred to as “suicide by cop.”
Holihan said in a statement that his review showed that Moyer anonymously called 911 and reported someone was shooting people with a rifle. When officers arrived at the home, Moyer walked out of the house and approached them carrying a rifle. Holihan also noted that Moyer’s gun was not working, but there was no way responding officers could have known that based on their interactions with him.
Holihan said a note was discovered after Moyer’s death that said “please convey my apologies to the officer who gets stuck shooting me.”
According to the Police Executive Research Forum’s “Suicide by Cop: Protocol and Training Guide,” an estimated 900 to 1,000 fatal officer-involved shootings occurred annually in the United States between 2015 and 2018. Of those, 10% to 30% involved suicide-by-cop incidents.
Moyer was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 3 p.m. on May 28. An autopsy confirmed he died of gunshot wounds.
The coroner said he would not provide further details and referred additional inquiries to the district attorney’s office.
