The Associated Press
MCKEESPORT, Pa. A handcuffed man fired a gun police didn’t know he had out of a police vehicle hitting an officer three times before fleeing from a western Pennsylvania police station, police said.
Koby Lee Francis, 22, of McKeesport, had been arrested after allegedly violating a protection from abuse order before Sunday afternoon’s gunfire outside the McKeesport police station, Allegheny County Police Superintendent Coleman McDonough said Monday. McKeesport is located near Pittsburgh.
Officer Gerasimos Athans, 32, had wounds that weren’t life-threatening and was expected to be discharged from the hospital in the next few days, McDonough said. Police are searching for Francis and said he should be considered armed and dangerous.
Handcuffed gunman, 22, shoots a Pennsylvania cop A manhunt is under way in western Pennsylvania for a suspect who authorities say shot an officer multiple times outside a police station while handcuffed.
Surveillance video that was released by the Allegheny County Police Department on Monday captured the moment the armed suspect, identified as 22-year-old Koby Lee Francis, opened fire on McKeesport police officer Gerasimos Athans during his arrest on Sunday afternoon.
In the brief recording, Athans is shown stepping out of his vehicle and walking around to retrieve Francis from the backseat to leas him inside the police station on Lysle Boulevard at around 4pm.
Wounded Officer Recovering,
McKeesport police Officer Jerry Athans, 32, prepares to return fire Sunday after being shot three times by a suspect identified as Koby Lee Francis, 22. Francis is charged by Allegheny County police with attempted homicide. (Submitted photo via Allegheny County police)
Holiday decorations in Kennedy Park on Lysle Boulevard spell out the words, “PEACE ON EARTH.”
The scene captured by surveillance cameras on Sunday afternoon along Fourth Avenue just behind those words is anything but peaceful.
Footage released by Allegheny County police on Monday shows a suspect identified as Koby Lee Francis, 22, of McKeesport, firing several shots at city police Officer Gerasimos “Jerry” Athans, 32, from the back seat of a McKeesport police cruiser.
Francis had been served Sunday with the protection from abuse order but is accused of having quickly violated it twice, police said. He was arrested and a pistol was found in his vehicle. Francis was described as combative and police initially said he kicked through a window of a police vehicle window. On Monday, police said that earlier report was mistaken and he did not kick out the window.
On a video released by police, the officer is seen opening the passenger side door of the police vehicle parked outside the station and then staggering back after police said he took fire from within the vehicle. The video shows Francis emerging from the vehicle with hands handcuffed in front of him and fires at the officer before fleeing.
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Police in Allegheny County, Pa., are searching for a 22-year-old suspect accused of shooting an officer three times in the neck at torso on Sunday while being transported outside a precinct after an earlier arrest.
Koby Lee Francis was arrested shortly after he was served a protection from abuse order. (He was found parked outside a residence in violation of the order, police said.)
The brazen shooting occurred outside the McKeesport police station, authorities said. Police said the suspect was already searched for firearms and they seized one. But there was apparently another one that was concealed because while he was being led out of the police car, he opened fire on the officer, police said. He was handcuffed at the time, they said.