PA State Trooper who shot & killed boy in 2002 is involved in another shooting death

[HiredGoon]

Trooper who killed Uniontown boy involved in South Side death
Monday, March 16, 2009
By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Samuel Nassan, the state trooper who shot a 12-year-old boy to death in Uniontown in 2002, has been identified as one of the officers involved in the shooting death Sunday of a motorist on the South Side.

State police spokeswoman Cpl. Linette Quinn confirmed Trooper Nassan's identity this morning.

Trooper Nassan and a Pittsburgh police officer were working together on a DUI roving patrol when they encountered Nicholas Haniotakis around 2 a.m. driving an SUV with its lights out and traveling in the wrong lane on 13th Street, according to a police account.

Both officers fired into the vehicle after a chase and an attempt by Mr. Haniotakis to run one of them over, police said.

Mr. Haniotakis, 33, of the South Side, crashed into a pole. He was pronounced dead of multiple gunshot wounds of the chest.

Trooper Nassan, who works out of the Pittsburgh barracks, was placed on desk duty, which is standard practice. His actions will be scrutinized by state police internal affairs -- another routine step after such an incident.

On Dec. 24, 2002, Trooper Nassan killed Michael Ellerbe after a vehicle chase. The trooper and his partner at the time, Cpl. Juan Curry, were chasing Michael after he bailed out of a stolen vehicle. Trooper Nassan has testified that he shot Michael in the back because he thought the boy had shot Cpl. Curry. Cpl. Curry said his gun fired accidentally as he scaled a fence.

The troopers were never charged criminally. However, Michael's father sued them in a wrongful death case. Last year, a federal jury awarded Michael's family $28 million. The state agreed to pay a $12.5 million settlement.

Trooper Nassan is a defendant in a civil rights suit in U.S. District Court. A Penn Hills man sued him last year, accusing him of throwing him to the ground and breaking his ankle outside a South Side bar.

Pittsburgh police this afternoon identified the city officer involved in the South Side incident as Sgt. Terrence Donnelly, a 16-year veteran.

Sgt. Donnelly is a motorcycle supervisor at Zone 6 in the West End. He is on paid administrative leave for an undetermined period of time.

City police spokeswoman Diane Richard said she did not know whether Trooper Nassan, Sgt. Donnelly or both fired the fatal shots.

[1861]

Wow , I wondered what happened after that shooting in 02 .

[Steve in PA]

I followed the first case because I use it in my firearms training. It contains several non-no's.........but in this case I don't think he did anything wrong.

[LittleRedToyota]

I followed the first case because I use it in my firearms training. It contains several non-no's.........but in this case I don't think he did anything wrong.

if the incident actually went down as they have described it on the local news, i agree 100%.

the guy was putting multiple people in imminent danger of being run over and killed. he needed to be stopped.

[HiredGoon]

UPDATE

Police officers cleared in fatal 2009 St. Patrick’s Day shooting

By Jill King Greenwood
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Last updated: 2:37 pm

Prosecutors cleared two police officers of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a motorist last year, officials said today.

An investigation by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.'s office found that state Trooper Samuel Nassan and Pittsburgh police Sgt. Terry Donnelly were justified in opening fire on Nicholas Haniotakis on March 15, 2009.

"We were always confident that the force they used that night was appropriate," said Chuck Hanlon, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1. "They acted according to their training and experience and what they did was appropriate."

Nassan and Donnelly were on DUI patrol in the South Side during that St. Patrick's Day weekend when they saw a 2000 Oldsmobile Bravada SUV with an Ohio license plate going the wrong way down 13th Street in the South Side about 1:30 a.m., police said.

They chased the SUV with lights and sirens as it sped down 13th Street in reverse, smashed into a parked car and backed up and hit the patrol car.

Both officers fired at the SUV, which sped away before crashing into a utility pole at Sarah and 22nd streets, police said.

Haniotakis, 33, of the South Side died from multiple bullet wounds at UPMC Mercy.

Hanlon said witness statements corroborate what Nassan and Donnelly told investigators about their encounter with Haniotakis.

Attorney James Ecker, who was hired to represent the Haniotakis family, declined to comment

[mmcallister]

guess they were in the right, iff that is exactly how it happened