Suspect in fatal shooting is returned to Scranton to face homicide charge

Joseph Kohut, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
·2 min read
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Aug. 21—A Scranton man accused of killing a man in the city earlier this year returned to Lackawanna County from New York to face charges, newly filed court records show.

Travis Anthony Lanzo also faces a new slate of felony counts, including aggravated assault, stemming from allegations he shot a gun into a house in January, less than two months before police said he shot and killed 27-year-old David Deshler.

Magisterial District Judge Kipp Adcock denied bail for Lanzo, 30, when he appeared Friday morning for arraignment on the Deshler killing, the January shooting and for another set of criminal charges stemming from a burglary in February.

Scranton police said Lanzo shot Deshler on March 12 near Schultz Court and Mulberry Street in the Hill Section.

Deshler was on his way to a neighborhood vigil and died 24 hours later at Geisinger Community Medical Center. A caregiver at St. Joseph's Center, he seemed to have been targeted for no reason at all, authorities said.

Lanzo went on the run after the shooting. Three other city residents — David Gaskins, 35, Jonathan Lance Smith, 32, and Noah Diemetri Ortiz, 24 — were jailed in Lackawanna County Prison without bail and are scheduled for a preliminary hearing Sept. 14.

The U.S. Marshals Service caught Lanzo in May at a home in the Catskills. The Ulster County Emergency Response and Crisis Negotiations teams assisted in his arrest.

During his arrest, police in New York found suspected narcotics packaged for sale, a gun with an obliterated serial number and a "ghost gun" manufactured with no serial number.

The Greene County sheriff's office took custody of Lanzo and he remained in New York until late last week, according to VINE, an inmate tracking service.

Attempts to reach officials at the Greene County sheriff's office were unsuccessful.

When Lanzo appeared before a magistrate Friday, authorities filed charges against him for firing seven rounds into a home on the 600 block of Deacon Street on Jan. 18.

Lanzo had been a suspect in that shooting. A few of the casings recovered at the Deacon Street shooting matched .40-caliber shell casings found at the scene of the Deshler shooting.

Charges against Lanzo include criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, strangulation, terroristic threats, simple assault and other related counts.

He is next scheduled for court Monday for a preliminary hearing on each case against him.

Contact the writer:

jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100, x5187;

@jkohutTT on Twitter.