The DA's Office Cleared Officers In A Non-Fatal June Shooting In Hatfield Township

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP, PA — Police officers were justified in shooting a man in Hatfield Township back on June 17 who had charged at them with a knife during an altercation, Montgomery County authorities announced on Friday.

The Office of Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele announced that officers committed no crime when they shot Sircar Brown, 28, of Lansdale, in a residential backyard in Hatfield a little after 7:30 a.m. on June 17.

Police had been dispatched to a call from a resident that a suspicious person was running through his property and had been hiding in a neighbor's backyard.

Patch previously reported on the shooting.

Prosecutors said that police at the scene ordered Brown to come out from where he was hiding and to show his hands, but Brown did not comply, and ended up initially being tased.

Brown then stood up wielding a knife and advanced toward a police officer, after which the officer shot Brown, according to the DA's Office.

Brown advanced again after being shot once, and officers again shot the man.

Police at the scene rendered medical aid to Brown, who was subsequently taken to Grandview Hospital for treatment of his injuries.

"After police located Brown hiding in the backyard of a Hatfield home, they repeatedly commanded him to stop and in excess of sixty times told him to drop the knife he was wielding, he repeatedly refused, instead advanced at one of the officers," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement. "Our investigation determined the facts of this case supported the use of deadly force and therefore did not warrant any criminal charge against the officer involved."

The DA's Office did not reveal the identity of the Hatfield police officer.

Steele's office said that at the time of the shooting, Brown was wanted by the Upper Gwynedd Township Police Department in connection with an arrest warrant for unauthorized use of a vehicle related to a June 4 arrest.

Prosecutors said that Brown had been found unresponsive on June 4 in the driver's seat of a running vehicle, with a loaded gun and knife on the passenger seat.

When EMTs attempted to revive him, Brown assaulted one of the medics, according to the DA's Office.

Brown was charged with aggravated assault, person not to possess a firearm, possession of a firearm with a manufacturer's number altered, and related charges.

He was later charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle after the vehicle's owner contacted police following the altercation with paramedics.

The DA's Office said that Brown is currently in stable condition at Grandview Hospital and his long-term prognosis for recovery is not known at this time.