Autopsy: Wounded teen later killed self
The Montgomery County resident was fired on by police, but the fatal wound was determined to be self-inflicted.
An autopsy on a troubled Montgomery County teen who was shot by police Sunday indicates that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, a prosecutor said yesterday.
A statement earlier this week by law-enforcement officials made no mention of a potential suicide. It said the youth had pointed a loaded, .45-caliber handgun at police who, "fearing for their lives," shot him multiple times.
The Lower Merion High School graduate, Sean S. Edelman, 19, of Pottstown, died on New Year's Day at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Yesterday, Gary Collins, a forensic pathologist with the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office, determined that Edelman had sustained four gunshot wounds, three of which - in the left chest, left outer thigh and right inner thigh - were not life-threatening, said Risa Vetri Ferman, Montgomery County first assistant district attorney.
Collins cited the fourth wound as a fatal self-inflicted "contact wound" to the head, Ferman said, meaning the gun was in close contact with the victim when fired.
"What took his life was his shot to the head," she said. A formal ruling on the cause of death has not yet been made, but it likely will be suicide, she said.
Douglas B. Breidenbach Jr., a lawyer representing the Edelman family, declined to comment until he had seen the autopsy report.
The District Attorney's Office is conducting the ongoing investigation at the request of state and local police.
Ferman said it appeared Edelman had been contemplating suicide.
Less than a day before the shooting, he accessed a Web site focused on suicide and left a note that said: "I'm sorry I just can't do it any longer. I don't even have credit with you."
The incident began at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, when officers arrived at the Pottstown home of Earl and Amy Peacock, where Edelman had been living, to investigate a report of a man threatening suicide, police said. Edelman was a nephew of the Peacocks.
Members of the Chester-Montgomery Emergency Response Team said they were unable to persuade Edelman, seen inside with a gun, to leave the house on Highland Road, police said. At about 12:45 a.m., Edelman - ignoring commands to stop - ran out a back door, jumped into his uncle's Hummer and accelerated toward the officers, who fired at the vehicle, police said.
A chase along Route 422 ended when police from several municipalities cornered Edelman in a bank parking lot on Egypt Road in West Norriton Township. State troopers and a Lower Providence Township officer, who had exited their vehicles, ordered Edelman to surrender, Ferman said.
Instead, Edelman "pointed a laser-sighted handgun at a trooper," prompting the troopers and the officer to shoot at Edelman, Ferman said.
Ferman said that since ballistics tests were pending, investigators did not know which bullets hit Edelman. She said the decision on whether to assign the officers involved to desk duty was up to the individual departments. The officers' identities have not been disclosed.
Joseph Opie, a longtime Edelman family friend who lives in Memphis, Tenn., questioned "why police didn't block access to the vehicle and the roads."
Echoing the sentiments of many of Edelman's friends, he called the death "preventable."
Court records show that Edelman, a former Narberth resident, had had brushes with the law since graduating from high school in 2006. He had been scheduled to appear in a Chester County district court this month on charges that he was intoxicated and resisted arrest in West Chester on Sept. 29.
Douglas Young, communications director for the Lower Merion School District, said counselors were aware of Edelman's death and available for any student or staff member in need of assistance.