Coroner rules homicide in deaths of Erie woman fatally stabbed at home and man found shot
The Erie County Coroner's Office has officially ruled the deaths last week of a woman found in the backyard of her East 28th Street residence and a man found on an East 17th Street sidewalk as homicides, boosting Erie's murders to 13 with a quarter of the year remaining.
Autumn Bassham, 48, who was found dead behind her home in the 1100 block of East 28th Street on the late morning of Sept. 19, died of multiple sharp-force trauma due to stabbing by a known assailant, Coroner Lyell Cook said Monday. Erie police have charged Bassham's former boyfriend, 45-year-old Gordon D. Kirkland, in her killing.
More: Erie man convicted of threatening ex-girlfriend with gun in 2021 charged in her killing
Cook also said that an autopsy performed Monday on 40-year-old Jeffery L. Johnson, who died at UPMC Hamot after he was taken there from the first block of East 17th Street on Friday, showed he died of gunshot wounds to the trunk. Police have charged 30-year-old Defonta L.D. Butler in the homicide.
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The 13 deaths ruled as homicides in Erie so far this year — a number that does not include deaths in motor-vehicle accidents in which someone was charged with homicide by vehicle, as the Coroner's Office rules those deaths as accidental — are more than double the number of homicides, five, that occurred in the city in 2022. It is the highest homicide total in Erie since 2018, when there were 14, according to Coroner's Office data.
More: Homicides on the rise: Erie's killings this year more than double the number in 2022
Of the 13 homicides, at least five would be considered domestic-related: The four people killed in the three murder-suicides, and the death of Bassham by her ex-boyfriend. All but one of the deaths, Bassham's, involved a victim who was fatally shot.
Erie police have filed criminal charges against suspects in all of the homicide investigations with the exception of the murder-suicides. However, no one has been charged directly with killing 18-year-old Rashaan Husband, who died of a gunshot wound to the back following a reported shootout May 28 at Tom McCarty Memorial Park on Pennsylvania Avenue.
According to Erie police, Husband was in a car in which gunshots were fired toward a group of people playing basketball at the park. One person who was at the park, identified by police as 26-year-old Patrick A. Nelson, reportedly returned fire as the car drove off.
Investigators said the car eventually went to the 800 block of East 24th Street, where responding officers found Husband and 19-year-old James E. Troop III, who had been shot in the right hand. Husband was taken to UPMC Hamot, where he was later pronounced dead.
More: Police seek motive after shootout at Erie basketball court leaves one dead, one wounded
Erie police charged Nelson with offenses including three felony counts of aggravated assault and a felony count of discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure. Detectives charged Troop with two felony counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and 10 misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit recklessly endangering another person. Both are scheduled to appear in court for their preliminary hearings on Oct. 4.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Coroner rules homicide in deaths of woman stabbed, man shot in Erie PA
