A suspect in police custody, shot in a jail cell, and survives.
11 Investigates has the shocking video of the struggle between police officers and a suspect that led to the shooting.
Chief Investigator Rick Earle obtained the body-worn camera video and has been going through it frame by frame.
He spoke with the suspect’s brother, an attorney hired by the family to pursue a civil lawsuit and an independent use-of-force expert.
11 Investigates also issued a warning that the video is difficult to watch.
The suspect survived the shooting. The whole encounter is less than a minute long.
The police body-worn camera, obtained exclusively by 11 Investigates, shows an intense struggle between an officer and a suspect in a holding cell.
Two Munhall police officers with tasers drawn open the cell door after the suspect put wet toilet paper on the holding cell camera, apparently upset that police wouldn’t give him his phone again.
There is a lot of yelling and screaming in the video.
At first, it appears the suspect, Chris Allie, who was arrested earlier after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, is cooperating.
Then there’s some shoving back and forth between both officers and Allie.
When one officer grabs his arm, Allie pulls away and a struggle ensues.
The officer attempts to use his taser, but Allie pushes his arm to the ceiling.
The other officer fires her taser, but it doesn’t work, likely because of his heavy jacket.
As Allie and the male officer roll over on the bench, the officer manages to pull his gun and fires three shots, hitting Allie in the chest.
Allie stands up, but eventually drops to his knees.
“I want to say that this is one of the most egregious uses of just aggressive force that I have ever seen,” said Nick Miller, a civil attorney hired by the family to pursue a lawsuit in this case.
Earle spoke with Allie’s attorney and his brother, Curtis.
They say Allie has had multiple surgeries and still suffers back and leg pain from bullet fragments.
“He was unarmed in a cell. It doesn’t get really no more, you know he’s in a cell,” said Curtis Allie.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for a Black man to have a cell door open and have a police officer pointing a weapon directly at you; that has to be terrifying. That’s not de-escalation,” said Miller.
They both say the former Marine had also been drinking, and they contend that it played a part in all of this.
After watching the video, they also questioned the officers’ actions after the shooting.
“They didn’t check to see how badly they had injured him. In fact, you can see one of the officers dragging him around the cell by his leg. It’s appalling how they treated this man,” said Miller.
But Allegheny County Police said Allie, who has a criminal record, was choking the officer.
They charged Allie with aggravated assault, strangulation and resisting arrest.
The Allegheny County District Attorney cleared the officer involved in the shooting.
We showed the video to retired Pittsburgh police officer and use-of-force expert Dave Wright.
After analyzing it multiple times, frame-by-frame, Wright says it appears Allie had the officer in an arm triangle hold.
Wright showed us the move, he says, would justify the use of lethal force.
“It makes him lightheaded. He’s going to go out if I continue to hold this on him, so that right there could escalate to deadly force,” said Wright.
But civil attorney Nick Milller, who also watched the video, disputes Wright’s claim.
“If you look at the video, his arms were in a protective position. He was trying to hold the officer’s arms down. They were not; his hands were not around the officer’s neck. It’s very clear he shouldn’t be charged with what he’s charged with,” said Miller.
“He could have been killed. I felt like there could have been other ways that they could have handled it,” said Curtis Allie.
Curtis Allie said the officers opened the cell door earlier to retrieve his brother’s cell phone with no trouble.
He and attorney Miller contend the officers could have handcuffed Allie through a small opening in the cell door before going in, called in backup, or just ignored him.
“Covering a camera with toilet paper does not necessitate having a weapon pointed at your face. I just don’t understand how any reasonable person can look at that video and make a determination that he should be charged and that these officers should not be charged with the bodily harm that they caused him,” said Miller.
11 Investigates reached out to the Munhall Police Chief, but has yet to hear back as of this writing.
11 Investigates also reached out to the Allegheny County Police and they referred Earle to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office.
The District Attorney’s office sent 11 Investigates this statement.
“The officer was cleared. After reviewing all the evidence, it was determined the incident was not prosecutable,” said the statement from the DA’s office.
Allie’s trial on the charges involving the police officer was supposed to start on Tuesday, but it’s been delayed again until August.
As for the charges involving the girlfriend, Curtis Allie said they aren’t going anywhere because she has refused to testify.
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