Attorney for slain Jamaican immigrant’s family questions investigation into his shooting death in rural Pennsylvania

An attorney for the family of a Jamaican immigrant shot to death in rural Pennsylvania last year said law enforcement officials didn’t paint a complete picture of who the shooter was when they decided not to press charges .

Peter Bernardo Spencer, 29, a Jamaican immigrant from Pittsburgh, was shot to death outside a cabin in rural Venango County on Dec. 11. In the aftermath, Spencer’s family said they believed he was the victim of a “modern-day lynching.” Spencer is Black and the four others at the home, including the shooter, are white.

Law enforcement officials said the shooter acted in self-defense and declined to charge him. Paul Jubas, an attorney representing the Spencers, said the family wasn’t surprised by the outcome.

“They were never going to charge these individuals,” Jubas said at a Monday afternoon news conference in Pittsburgh.

Witnesses told investigators that Spencer was allegedly firing his AK-47 assault rifle into the sky and growing angry and erratic on the night he was killed. Spencer, like some of the witnesses at the house, had been drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, and taking psychedelic mushrooms. He was telling the others “he was a god,” investigators said, and demanded their car keys and phones as they expressed concerns for their safety. When Spencer allegedly pointed the rifle at the shooter, that man fired 11 shots and killed him.

Prosecutors have said Spencer and his fiancee were already under investigation by both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the state Attorney General’s Office, possibly for ghost guns or trafficking.

On Monday, Jubas claimed the shooter, who was not named, is also a part of that active investigation. He said he had obtained “overwhelming evidence” but declined to provide it to reporters.

“They tried to make it seem like Peter Spencer, the Black guy, was the only criminal there,” Jubas said.

Neither the Venango County district attorney, the ATF, or an attorney for the shooter returned immediate requests for comment Monday.

Cyril Wecht, a well-known pathologist hired by the Spencer family, also appeared at Jubas’ news conference. He believes that five of the nine shots that hit Spencer entered his back, including his buttocks, from a distance.

“He was running away,” Wecht said Monday of Spencer. Prosecutors previously attributed those shots to Spencer’s body falling as he was shot.

Though the shooter, who has not been named, told investigators he had consumed mushrooms, there was no evidence of the drug in his toxicology report. Jubas said this was proof that he was lying. Spencer’s own toxicology tests revealed psilocin, which prosecutors said could cause panic attacks and psychosis. Jubas said Spencer had fentanyl in his toxicology report as well, but it wasn’t mentioned by prosecutors during their March 15 news conference.

Jubas said he couldn’t rule out Spencer being drugged.

The Pennsylvania State Police said there was no evidence of racial bias or a hate crime in the shooting, but Jubas said there was still too much they didn’t know about what happened that night by the Allegheny River.

“They didn’t arrest anybody, " Jubas said, “despite a bunch of guns, a bunch of drugs and a dead body with nine bullet holes in it.”

Prosecutors said cell phone evidence appeared to show that group had a good time together before the shooting and noted that Spencer and the shooter were friends. Wecht balked at that conclusion.

“How many times do you have to shoot your friend?” Wecht said.

Spencer’s family did not speak at the news conference, but Jubas said the family was devastated by the decision to not charge the shooter.