No charges filed after fatal shooting near Pennsylvania State Capitol
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM)– Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo determined that no criminal charges will be filed in connection with the self-defense shooting death of a man last month.
According to officials, 52-year-old Paul Kattouf of Harrisburg was found dead with a gunshot wound in his chest on the 200 block of State Street near the Capitol Building. A person of interest was detained at the scene, and the manner of death was ruled homicide.
The Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office said the Harrisburg Bureau of Police conducted an investigation of the homicide and declared the shooter, under the Pennsylvania statutes relating to the use of deadly force in self-protection and the protection of others, was defending himself.
Officials said that the shooter was one of the passengers in a vehicle driven by his pregnant girlfriend with her seven-year-old son also present. The family was driving the adult male to work when they first interacted with Kattouf’s vehicle on Front and Reily’s Street. Kattouf reportedly verbally engaged them over a traffic matter.
The family reportedly took a detour on Forester Street to divert to North 3rd Street until turning west on State Street where Kattouf had pulled over. The female driver called the Dauphin County Emergency Management Agency to report a road rage incident and proceeded to read Kattouf’s license plate number.
According to the Dauphin County DA’s Office, Kattouf “likely surmised that the vehicle containing the family was following him.” He exited his vehicle and proceeded to use pepper spray inside the passenger side window, which hit the pregnant driver, the male passenger, and the child in the back seat.
The driver then reached for her gun but because of the pepper spray was unable to fire it. The DA’s office says the passenger then took the gun from her hand and fired a single shot through Kattouf’s heart and the right lung.
The driver and passenger of the family’s car had a sheriff-issued license to carry concealed firearms.
The DA’s office stated that the incident was a tragedy involving both parties’ misapprehension of the circumstances. Still, the passengers’ misapprehension was reasonable, and his actions can’t carry criminal liability under Pennsylvania law.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
