A Yardley man who shot the town’s police chief was sentenced to state prison

A Yardley man who shot the town’s police chief in 2021 was sentenced Monday to 15 to 30 years in state prison.

Colin Petroziello, 26, fired a shotgun at Yardley Police Chief Joe Kelly as he stood outside his condo with Christina Viviano, Petroziello’s probation officer, in August 2021. The shooting sparked an hours-long standoff that caused chaos in the small town, forcing nearby businesses, including a daycare, to evacuate, and sending 300 police officers from surrounding departments to respond to calls for assistance.

Petroziello entered a no-contest plea in September to two counts of attempted murder.

In sentencing Petroziello on Monday, Bucks County Judge Wallace H. Bateman, cited Petroziello’s lifelong struggle with mental health issues and drug abuse and called him a danger to the community.

» READ MORE: The Yardley man who shot at police had barricaded his mother inside his apartment for hours, authorities say

“We know very little was accomplished by the efforts of your parents to get you help,” Bateman told Petroziello during the hearing. “The full extent of the impact your actions had upon the victims will never be known.”

Bateman praised Kelly and his fellow officers for their professionalism, noting that “any level of force” would have been justified in the aftermath of the shooting. Yet, Petroziello was apprehended unharmed.

Petroziello’s attorney, A. Charles Peruto Jr., had asked Bateman to fashion a sentence that minimized jail time but came with significant probation, saying his client “is an unlucky kid whose wires were crossed at a young age.”

Petroziello has been diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and Asperger’s syndrome, according to Peruto. His family had tried for years to get him help, he said, but Petroziello resisted and self-medicated with alcohol and hallucinogens.

First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn presented evidence that Petroziello, at as young as 15, had an “inability to assume responsibility” for his actions, and she said his parents downplayed his reckless behavior.

On the day of the shooting, Viviano was on her way to her first scheduled meeting with Petroziello at his condo in Yardley. She said Monday that something about that morning made her uneasy, a feeling she couldn’t shake as she approached Petroziello’s residence. She told Bateman she had asked an emergency dispatcher to check on her in five minutes if they didn’t hear back from her, the first time she had made such a call in her 10-year career.

When she arrived at the condo, Viviano said, she heard screaming and banging, and, fearing that someone inside was hurt, called for backup. Inside, Petroziello had grown restless and frantic, according to his parents’ testimony in court Monday. He believed armed men were waiting outside for him, and refused to leave the condo to attend a court hearing for a DUI case in Philadelphia.

At one point, Petroziello put a handgun in his mouth and told his mother, Ann, “Today is the day you’re going to see your son die,” his mother told Bateman on Monday.

“When you have a loved one dealing with mental illness, you don’t get through to that person,” Ann Petroziello said. “It’s like you’re constantly in crisis mode, almost trying to keep them alive.”

Kelly, hours away from a long summer weekend, heard Viviano’s call for help and responded.

“I couldn’t explain it, but God sent me who I needed in that moment,” Vivano said of Kelly, whom she called her hero.

As Kelly approached the condo unit’s front door, prosecutors said, he could see Petroziello on the staircase, holding a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun. Kelly placed himself between Viviano and the door, they said, and raised his hand to protect his head.

Petroziello fired, striking Kelly’s hand, which still bears small pieces of shrapnel nearly two years later. He then fell asleep inside the condo. Police took Petroziello into custody three hours later with the shotgun and handgun, which investigators later learned had been reported stolen.

Kelly said the ordeal left him shaken, and he is constantly reminded of the terror of that day whenever he looks at his deformed left hand. He was frustrated, he said, by Petriozello’s lack of accountability for his actions, and criticized Petriozello’s family for blaming the incident on his mental illness.

Viviano, in speaking to the judge, agreed.

“Despite you taking no responsibility for those deliberate and homicidal actions, make no mistake: You tried to kill me and Chief Kelly,” she said.

Petroziello apologized to them at the hearing.

“I wish I was able to know what was going on that day,” he said. “I wish I could take back the damage that was done.”