A Lower Pottsgrove man knocked on the wrong door. A cop killed him, thinking he was a burglar.
Glenwood Pysher IV walked to the wrong home while out celebrating a friend's birthday, his family said. The home's owner, thinking he was trying to break in, called the police.
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.
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.”
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.”
