Officer Sean Farrell Charged in 22-Year-Old Glenwood Pysher's Fatal Shooting

Q: What did the friends on the video call witness during the fatal encounter between the unarmed student and the officer?

They appear to have witnessed the encounter remotely as it unfolded on FaceTime or another video call, and then lost contact within minutes as police confronted him and he was shot. According to family accounts cited in follow-up reporting, Glenwood Pysher had realized he was at the wrong house and called friends who were coming to pick him up. His father said he was on a FaceTime call at about 12:32 a.m. and was shot around 12:35 a.m. His mother said he had also sent friends a video of his location so they could find him. The available reporting does not clearly say the friends saw the actual gunfire on the screen. What is supported is that they were in live contact with him during the final minutes, knew he was waiting at the wrong address, and were driving toward him when police vehicles sped past them. Soon after, they learned he had been shot rather than detained. Prosecutors’ account of the recorded police footage says Pysher was unarmed, raised his hands, and walked toward Officer Sean Farrell before Farrell fired two shots. So while the friends were effectively witnessing the episode in real time through the call, the public record most clearly establishes that they were connected to him during the fatal encounter, not that they definitively saw every moment of the shooting itself.

3 articles · Updated · FOX 29 Philadelphia · Sep 1

Montgomery County prosecutors charged Upper Pottsgrove officer Sean Farrell with involuntary manslaughter after the Aug. 23 shooting death of 22-year-old Glenwood Pysher.
Body-camera footage shows Pysher unarmed, with his hands raised and slowly approaching Farrell, when investigators say Farrell fired twice.
District Attorney Kevin Steel said Pysher had gone to the wrong house after a birthday celebration, was apparently intoxicated, and was complying with orders rather than charging or threatening anyone.
Farrell later told another officer that Pysher had screamed and charged at him, but prosecutors said the video contradicted that account and made the shooting an illegal use of lethal force under Pennsylvania law.