DA: Police justified in use of deadly force - abc27 WHTM

Police who shot and killed a 72-year-old man during an incident at his Conewago Township home last week were justified in using deadly force, York County District Attorney Tom Kearney said Thursday.

Kearney said preliminary findings indicate the officers had a reasonable fear of immediate serious injury or death when Clifton Thompson shouldered a .30-30 caliber rifle and pointed it directly at them during the early morning of February 21.

Officers from the Northern York County Regional Police Department had gone to Thompson's home at 475 Hykes Mill Road, just north of Strinestown, after Thomson called a crisis intervention agency, indicated he had a gun, and was thinking about harming himself, according to investigators.

As the police officers were trying to talk to Thompson, he fired a single round from just 10 feet away. The officers kept trying to talk to Thompson, but he ran out a back door and refused orders to drop his gun, then pointed the rifle at officers who responded by firing four shots, Kearney said.

Thompson was struck by the gunfire and died at the scene. The officers were not injured.

Kearney said his provisional report is pending the completion of forensic testing, but he said the officers involved may return to duty once it has been determined they are psychologically fit.