As relatives and friends gathered to lay 19-year-old Justin Jackson to rest, several questions surrounding the accounts of how city police officers came to fatally shoot the young man one week earlier remained unanswered.

But then the question of what this young man, who his father said was “trying to turn his life around,” was doing with a gun in his possession, clouds the issue of excessive force by police.

JACKSON

Within hours of the May 6 early evening shooting in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Oliver neighborhood, city police Chief Nate Harper said two officers—one a canine officer, saw Jackson walking down Arlington Avenue with his hand “under his jacket.” When asked to take his “hand from his pocket,” Jackson revealed a .357-caliber pistol.

The canine officer, since identified as eight-year veteran Chris Sciulli, released the dog, which Jackson fatally shot before he and the officers exchanged several more shots. Jackson was struck in the head and torso and died at the scene.

Two days later, police amplified the official account, saying Jackson shot at the officers first. No one noticed the dog had been hit until the shooting ended. The officers were responding to a report of shots being fired when they encountered Jackson. But some are asking, if being a young Black man with hands in pockets a block from where shots were reportedly fired constitutes probable cause for a search?

Jackson’s father Donald said police overreacted to the dog’s killing, and his son’s death was an “execution.” Others said they never knew Jackson to carry a gun, some suggesting the gun was planted and the police actually shot the dog.

Jackson, however, had a substantial history of arrests that included firearms violations, simple assault and criminal conspiracy. At the time of his death, Jackson was on probation for assaulting a 13-year-old last year. During that incident he did have a gun tucked into his pants, but was not charged with any firearms offense.

As for, the gun at the scene May 6, the Allegheny County medical examiner reported two days later that it had fired the shots that killed the K-9.

In a press release, Dr. Karl Williams wrote, “The projectile that resulted in the death of the canine was fired from the weapon found at the scene. It was not fired from the weapon of either of the two police officers involved in the incident.”

Williams added that the gun, which was reported stolen from a home in Elliot in 2006, was fired “at least once, from the inside out, through the pocket of the outer garment that was worn by Mr. Jackson at the time of the shooting.”

Despite such findings, Black Political Empowerment Project Director Tim Stevens has again asked Harper to provide the written guidelines and officer accreditations regarding use of deadly force policies he agreed to in January.

In the wake of the Jackson shooting, Stevens said, “the issues of proper use of force remains of great importance and interest to many Pittsburgh citizens. We have received many inquiries about this tragic incident and ask that you provide a full report based on all the facts after carefully reviewing the protocol for use of force that also takes into account the proper use of K9 officers.”

(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)