Housing authority officer on trial for fatal shooting
Charmo faces one count of criminal homicide in the fatal shooting of Jerry Jackson of Hazelwood. Jackson, 44, was shot April 6, 1995, during an early morning 5-mile chase that started in the Hill District and wound through west Oakland and the South Side. Jackson was in a stolen car.
Prosecutors' opening arguments and witness testimony before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David Cercone yesterday contradicted long-standing accounts that bullets from at least two other officers' guns struck Jackson.
'At the time that John Charmo shot Jerry Jackson 13 times, he could not have reasonably believed that he or any other person was in bodily danger,' said Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ed Borkowski, who explained that the 14th shot could have only been fired by one other officer.
Borkowski called two police officers to the stand who testified they never saw Jackson turn his car inside the narrow tunnel and drive toward Charmo, as Charmo had testified during an open inquest.
But Charmo's lawyer told jurors his client was doing his duty when he fired on Jackson.
'Jerry Jackson was the architect of his own fate,' said Charles LoPresti, who said Jackson used his car as a deadly weapon to attack officers and endanger numerous civilian drivers and pedestrians.
'John Charmo was totally justified in using deadly force,' LoPresti said.
Charmo testified during a coroner's inquest in 1995 that he fired on Jackson because the suspect spun his car around 180 degrees inside the narrow tunnel and drove toward his patrol car.
'I couldn't turn right. I couldn't turn left,' said Charmo in his inquest statement, which the prosecution team read yesterday.
Charmo could not escape the oncoming car and fired his semiautomatic pistol at Jackson through his own windshield, according to his statement. Charmo said the stolen car next glanced off his front right fender and crashed into the wall. Jackson then turned the car around and drove into the tunnel, Charmo said.
Charmo said at the inquest that he loaded a fresh magazine and fired all 13 rounds through his driver's window. Charmo said he feared Jackson would make it to Forbes Avenue, where students at nearby Duquesne University may have been walking.
Pittsburgh police Officers Robert Zollars and John Godlewski were in the patrol car immediately behind Charmo's when he entered the Armstrong Tunnel, they testified yesterday.
The officers said they heard several shots before they saw Jackson's Mazda and Charmo's car pressed together and sliding along the tunnel wall before coming to a stop. They said they then heard one or two more shots before they saw Charmo fall over and they opened fire.
In cross-examination, Zollars said there was a short period he was distracted because he thought he had a flat tire and could've missed some of the events.
But Godlewski, who faces cross-examination when the trial resumes today, said he had a good view while their car followed only one or two car lengths behind Charmo's and that he never saw the Mazda spin around.
Charmo testified during the 1995 inquest that after Jackson turned the car around the officer pinned Jackson's car against the left tunnel wall. The quick stop forced Charmo to bounce off the steering wheel and slump into his seat. He wasn't wearing a seat belt.
Godlewski and Zollars said yesterday they saw bullet holes in Charmo's windshield, saw him drop into the seat, and assumed Jackson had shot the officer. The officers testified they saw Jackson's right arm pointed toward Charmo, so they opened fire.
In all, 51 rounds were fired at the car, Borkowski said. But only one other officer actually hit Jackson, the prosecutor said. No other officers face charges in the shooting death.
The case enraged the black community when new evidence surfaced during a civil case brought by Jackson's family against the Housing Authority in the final days of 1998.
The case was settled out of court for $350,000, and a second inquest resulted in the criminal charges against Charmo, who is white.
'Black people have no justice in the city of Pittsburgh,' said Jackson's older brother, Morgan Jackson, during a break in the trial. 'You couldn't turn a Volkswagen around in that tunnel.'
Jackson's mother said she could see no remorse in the placid face of Charmo as he sat among his defense team, neatly dressed in a black suit.
'I put it in God's hands ... I want (God) to give him a hard time,' Ina Jackson said.
Chuck Plunkett can be reached at cplunkett@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7996.
