# [ODMP] Pennsylvania State Police, Pennsylvania ~ December 12, 2005



## Guest

A Corporal with the Pennsylvania State Police was killed in the line of duty on December 12, 2005

*http://www.odmp.org/officer.php?oid=18074*


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## kwflatbed

The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers . . .






















Corporal Joseph Pokorney 
*Pennsylvania State Police
Pennsylvania*
End of Watch: Monday, December 12, 2005

Biographical Info
*Age:* 45
*Tour of Duty:* Not available
*Badge Number:* Not available

Incident Details
*Cause of Death:* Gunfire
*Date of Incident:* Monday, December 12, 2005
*Weapon Used*: Gun; Unknown type
*Suspect Info:* At large

Corporal Pokorney was shot and killed while making a traffic stop near an exit ramp from I-279 in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, shortly after 0200 hours. After shooting Corporal Polorney, the four suspects stole his service weapon and fled the scene.

Corporal Pokorney had served with the Pennsylvania State Police for 22 years. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Agency Contact Information
Pennsylvania State Police
1800 Elmerton Avenue
Harrisburg, PA 17110

Phone: (717) 783-5556

* _Please contact the agency for funeral information_

*»* View this officer's Reflections*»* Leave a Reflection*»* List all officers from this agency*»* Update this memorial*»* Printer friendly view


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## kwflatbed

*Dragnet cast for killers of state trooper slain during traffic stop*

*Veteran officer gunned down in Carnegie*

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

By Jonathan D. Silver, Cindi Lash and Moustafa Ayad, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The final traffic stop of state police Cpl. Joseph Pokorny's career ended outside a Carnegie hotel yesterday with a violent confrontation unfolding so rapidly that the 22-year veteran had no time to call for help once he realized his life was in danger.

Authorities said the 2 a.m. encounter, details of which remained murky last night, quickly turned into a desperate struggle that ended with the corporal fatally shot in the chest and lying in a snowbank near the Parkway West. The vehicle sped away and was recovered yesterday evening on the South Side, near the Hot Metal Bridge.

Some of Cpl. Pokorny's belongings lay strewn near the parking lot of the Extended StayAmerica hotel. His gun reportedly was missing.

Police quickly launched a massive manhunt for up to four suspects believed to have fled. By nightfall, a man and woman had been taken into custody in the 2800 block of Sarah Street, South Side, and police with photographs of another suspect set up a dragnet in Brookline, peering into vehicles traveling down busy Brookline Boulevard. Authorities believe they have linked a semiautomatic handgun found at the scene of the homicide to the man apprehended on the South Side, but no one had been charged in Cpl. Pokorny's slaying as of last night.

The woman, identified as Charise Cheatom, 23, of the Sarah Street address, was charged with hindering apprehension and false reporting. Her attorney, Angela Carsia, last night said police alleged that she did not initially disclose to them that the man believed linked to the gun was in her house.

Col. Jeffrey B. Miller, the state police commander, traveled to Pittsburgh from Harrisburg to praise Cpl. Pokorny and vow to hunt down those responsible for his death. As he discussed Cpl. Pokorny, 45, and the two children he left behind, Col. Miller struggled to keep his emotions in check.

"Cpl. Pokorny," he said, pausing for a long time as his jaw worked, "Cpl. Pokorny was a highly respected member of the department. He spent 22 1/2 years as a member. He was promoted to corporal in 2000."

Calling it a "cowardly murder," Col. Miller used the news conference to address the culprits.

"You have an opportunity right now to turn yourselves in," he said. "We don't want to see more violence associated with this circumstance." The corporal, described as an aggressive and respected trooper, worked as the overnight patrol supervisor out of the Pittsburgh barracks in Moon. At 2:08 a.m., he alerted dispatch that he was following a Mercury Sable, but authorities yesterday could not say why Cpl. Pokorny intended to pull the vehicle over or where he was when he made the dispatch.

State police were reviewing audio tapes of the call yesterday. Typically, patrol troopers travel in pairs on the midnight shift, but supervisors can drive alone.

Col. Miller said there were indications that Cpl. Pokorny asked for backup during his initial radio call. However, he raised the possibility that the situation changed so swiftly that the corporal did not have time to wait for help or make additional dispatches.

Eight minutes later, Carnegie police Sgt. Mark Lint happened upon Cpl. Pokorny's cruiser while on routine patrol in the 600 block of North Bell Avenue outside the front entrance of the hotel.

Carnegie Police Chief Jeff Harbin said Sgt. Lint was driving along the road when he saw the corporal's police car, its headlights on, overhead red and blue lights activated and driver's side door open.

Sgt. Lint found Cpl. Pokorny about 25 feet away in a snowbank and radioed for medics, Chief Harbin said. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:26 a.m.

Cpl. Pokorny's vehicle was equipped with a dashboard camera that typically would be activated when the overhead lights were turned on. However, it was unclear whether the camera was working.

"The scene itself leads us to believe there was a struggle," Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said. Superintendent Moffatt estimated that about 60 state troopers were working on the investigation yesterday along with county detectives, city police, U.S. marshals and sheriff's deputies.

Heaters were brought in to melt snow at the crime scene, which was blocked off for much of yesterday by state police. During interviews of hotel residents following the discovery of Cpl. Pokorny's body, a resident was arrested on narcotics charges. It was not clear if there was any connection to the homicide investigation.

Yesterday morning, dozens of city, county and state police and Allegheny County sheriff's deputies converged on the South Side after obtaining information that a man wanted for questioning in Cpl. Pokorny's slaying was hiding in a townhouse in the 2800 block of Sarah Street.

Police evacuated some units in the row of townhouses and told other residents of the street to stay indoors and away from windows.

Grim-faced, rifle-toting troopers and officers took up positions at intersections and shut off access to narrow alleys for several blocks in each direction.

Some motorists occasionally slowed their cars to quiz officers stationed at 28th and Carson Streets about the commotion. Others peered out of the windows of the Crazy Mocha coffee shop across Carson Street or stole furtive peeks from second- and third-floor windows of the Carson Retirement Residence, which overlooks the street.

As morning stretched into afternoon, patrons seeking to reach the Goodwill Industries store, other nearby apartment complexes or cars parked on Sarah Street occasionally sought to breach the police lines. But they were told to stay back or, when possible, walk several blocks out of their way.

Shortly after noon, police released a man and a woman who had been seated in a patrol car, their hands bound with flexible cuffs, but then took the man back into custody a short time later. The woman, who lived in the apartment building surrounded by police, declined comment.

State troopers from the Investigations Unit at Troop B headquarters in Washington, Pa., arrived with two men whose hands also were bound with flexible cuffs. The troopers briefly took the two men out of their unmarked cars. But police officials would not identify them or say why they were there.

At midday, police made contact with another resident of the townhouse building who apparently had nothing to do with Cpl. Pokorny's slaying but was wanted on a warrant in an unrelated robbery. After discovering that police had surrounded the building, that man surrendered and walked out of the house accompanied by two small children.

The man police were seeking did not come out for another hour, and only after stalling a state police negotiator, Cpl. Norman Hilf, who'd made contact with him by cellular telephone. The man repeatedly told police he was coming out, only to say he was first getting dressed, then brushing his teeth.

Police waited until the man finally emerged to take him in to county police headquarters for questioning.

Police said they found blood inside the building and also found a trail of blood on Larkins Way, a dead-end alley one block south of Sarah Street. But they would not say where they believed the blood came from, or if they were sure that it was related to the slaying.

At 3:15 p.m., police fired seven shots of tear gas into the building and began to search it for guns or other evidence related to the slaying. They found no other people inside.

As activity at that scene wound down, police developed information about a second man sought in connection with their investigation and learned that he might have been in Brookline.

Police cruisers sped in convoys from the South Side to Brookline Boulevard and Pioneer Avenue, at one end of Brookline's business district. As night fell, troopers and city police shut off Brookline Boulevard between Pioneer Avenue and Wedgemere Street while other officers prowled on foot through rutted ice and snow on nearby Fitch Way, Dillon Way and Wedgemere.

Some officers spoke with residents in the Pinebrook Apartment complex at the intersection. Others went door to door on nearby streets with posters bearing the photograph and other information about the man they were seeking.

By 6 p.m., troopers had reopened Brookline Boulevard to traffic but had parked marked patrol cars in traffic lanes to create a bottleneck. As motorists slowed to pass by, uniformed troopers approached each car and peered inside before allowing vehicles to pass.

They also checked out the occupants of passing Port Authority buses.

By 7:15 p.m., most troopers and officers had left the area without taking anyone into custody.

Three schools in the Plum School District were locked down for about an hour yesterday while state, county and Plum police searched a townhouse in the Holiday Park section of the borough where officials believed a suspect in the trooper's shooting once lived.

Police also searched in St. Clair Village and in Beechview, near Sebring Avenue, last night, without apparent success.

Nothing was found and the schools -- Oblock Junior High School, Adlai Stevenson Elementary School and Holiday Park Elementary School -- were cleared at 1:30 p.m.

Gov. Ed Rendell expressed condolences to the corporal's family and ordered state flags to be lowered to half-staff on Friday, the day of Cpl. Pokorny's funeral service.

"He made the ultimate sacrifice," state police Capt. Roger Waters said. "How many times do we go out on the roads by ourselves not knowing if you're going to come home?" Cpl. Pokorny was the 91st state trooper killed in the line of duty.


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## kwflatbed

Traffic Stop Turned Bad For Pennsylvania Trooper



AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
*Hundreds of police from throughout the country assemble before the funeral for Pennsylvania state police Cpl. Joseph Pokorny, in Aliquippa, Pa.*​


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