City officer to be tried in brother's slaying

"They loved each other to death" was how Sandra Kallaur described the relationship between her husband, Christopher, and his older brother, Robert.

That description took on a darker meaning yesterday as she tried to explain to a Philadelphia judge how brotherly love turned to fratricide Aug. 2 outside a Northeast Philadelphia veterans club.

Christopher Kallaur, 37, of Northeast Philadelphia, a Philadelphia police officer for almost eight years who was disabled last year while arresting and handcuffing a suspect, was held for trial on a charge of third-degree murder by Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni in the shooting of his brother, a 46-year-old former middleweight boxer.

Sandra Kallaur was the only witness called by Assistant District Attorney Richard Sax. Kallaur testified about how a late-night get-together developed into a fight that ended in the parking lot, with Christopher cradling his brother and trying to stanch the blood flowing from Robert's stomach wound.

"I got you, brother. You're going to be all right. It's just a graze wound," Christopher said, according to his wife.

Christopher Kallaur, a stocky, bearded man, sat across the courtroom, trying to maintain his composure. Both eyes were still slightly blackened from the fight, his nose broken and his upper lip stitched closed.

Sandra Kallaur said the brothers had been competing against each other in a shuffleboard game after midnight at American Legion Post 810 in the 9100 block of Old Newtown Road in Bustleton.

She said they were there as part of a police motorcycle club - though not an officer, Robert Kallaur was a member - that was planning a group ride to New Hope.

Although the brothers were getting along, Sandra Kallaur said, she and Robert's girlfriend, Danielle Gale, were not.

Kallaur said several sarcastic comments led to an exchange of insults involving her husband's alleged extramarital affair and Gale's job as a "stripper."

The argument became loud enough that both couples were asked to leave and wound up in the parking lot, Kallaur said.

She said that Gale rushed her and pushed her to the ground, and that Robert Kallaur began urging his girlfriend to finish the fight.

When her husband tried to intervene, Sandra Kallaur said, Robert turned and decked him with a punch to the face, followed by another after the dazed officer tried to get up.

The brothers were on the ground wrestling, with Gale egging on her boyfriend, Sandra Kallaur continued, when she heard several shots.

Defense attorney Jack McMahon argued that there was no evidence that Christopher Kallaur intended to murder his brother. McMahon said the incident could even be seen as self-defense, given that Christopher had already been twice knocked to the ground by punches thrown by a former professional boxer.

"This was not a homicide," McMahon said. "This was a tragedy."

Sax argued for the judge to hold Kallaur for trial on a general murder charge. Sax noted that Kallaur fired his .40-caliber pistol five times; three shots hit his brother and one grazed the arm of his wife.

In holding Kallaur for trial on a charge of third-degree murder, Deni also set bail at $75,000, allowing him to go home to his wife and three children - 14, 12, and 6 - who were in court with his mother.

"But that means absolutely no alcohol," Deni added. "Not one drop."