Officer justified in killing Levittown woman, D.A. says

A police sergeant who shot and killed a 30-year-old woman in her Levittown home was justified in his use of deadly force, Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry said yesterday.

Jennifer McCaffrey had barricaded herself in an upstairs closet with two semiautomatic handguns and a supply of bullets Sept. 10 when she fired three times at Middletown Township Police Sgt. Peter Feeney, Henry said.

Feeney fired three shots into the closet, killing McCaffrey. An investigation by county detectives concluded that Feeney's action "was clearly justified," Henry said.

McCaffrey had a history of suicidal tendencies and of alcohol and prescription-drug abuse, said Henry, who characterized the incident as a "suicide by cop."

Shortly before 10 p.m., police went to McCaffrey's home on Homestead Road after her father had called 911. Jim McCaffrey, owner of McCaffrey's Supermarkets, told dispatchers that his daughter had phoned his house and threatened to kill herself.

"He stated that he thought his daughter had shot herself," Henry said. "She made a statement to the effect of 'Are you ready for this?' and then he heard a gunshot."

Officers could see a rifle through the windows when they arrived. They knocked on the door repeatedly, Henry said, but no one answered, so they forced the door open.

"They didn't know if the person inside was dead or alive," she said.

Upstairs, one bedroom door was open. Feeney, a 12-year veteran, entered the room and saw the bifold doors of its closet slightly open, with boxes stacked in front.

"From the door, he could see a hand with a gun pointed at him," Henry said. "He shouted commands: 'Let me see your hands. Drop the gun.' " He got no response.

From the bedroom doorway, Henry said, Middletown Officer Michael Stum fired a pepper-ball gun into the closet, releasing pepper spray.

Initially, Henry said, there was no reaction, then gunshots from the closet. Two bullets struck a bed between Feeney and the closet. A third passed by Feeney's head and went through a wall behind him, she said.

At that point, Henry said, Feeney fired three shots into the closet, killing McCaffrey. She was found still gripping a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun in her left hand, her finger on the trigger. A second gun of the same type lay beside her right hand. A box of ammunition also was found in the closet.

Neither gun was registered to McCaffrey, Henry said. She would not say who owned the weapons, but said police are investigating how McCaffrey obtained them.

A call to McCaffrey's family was not immediately returned. Henry said the family had cooperated with the investigation.