Former Police Officer Found Not Guilty In 2013 Fatal Bar Shooting
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A former Pittsburgh Police officer has been found not guilty in connection with a shooting at a bar in Bloomfield in 2013 that claimed the life of his friend.
Former Pittsburgh Policeman Kenneth Farnan put his face in his hands and cried when he heard the verdict: not guilty of either first or third degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. It took the jury only 45 minutes to deliberate.
Farnan was charged with shooting and killing his one-time best friend Shawn Evans after a bar room fight in Bloomfield back in 2013. The prosecution argued Farnan's version of the violent fight couldn't be true if the victim was still grasping a paper towel as he lay dead.
The jury, though, apparently believed Farnan's self-defense argument.
Neither Farnan or his attorney from the Office of the Public Defender would comment, other than a statement his lawyer gave reporters on Farnan's behalf:
"It is not a great outcome for anybody," the lawyer quoted Farnan as saying. "Farnan hopes both families can move on."
Defense attorney Phil DiLucente is not affiliated with this case but says he was not surprised by the short deliberation.
"I was not surprised," DiLucente said. "I've tried a tremendous amount of aggravated assault cases, jury, non-jury and I made the statement a couple of days ago that I thought it was an extremely defensible case. When two people are in fisticuffs and one person that is the alleged victim comes back a second time to engage in fighting and this other gentleman has a gun, and he uses that weapon, we have justification in Pennsylvania – self-defense of yourself and or another."
During the trial, Farnan testified in his own defense and admitted he was intoxicated but testified just because he was intoxicated didn't mean he had to forfeit his own life.
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