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Officers cleared of wrongdoing in fatal shooting of Lancaster man

Lancaster County D.A. Craig Stedman cleared three Lancaster city police officers of any wrongdoing in the June 10th deadly shooting of homeless man Gregory Bayn...

Lancaster County D.A. Craig Stedman cleared three Lancaster city police officers of any wrongdoing in the June 10th deadly shooting of homeless man Gregory Bayne, 35.

Video from Lancaster Safety Coalition and private cameras captured the tense moments between Bayne and three Lancaster police officers, and then the gunshot fired by Officer Jose De La Torre into Bayne’s body.

“There’s just no question in my mind, they did what they had to do and made that difficult choice and a person’s life is lost unfortunately,” Stedman said.

The officers were questioning Bayne after a safety coalition camera caught him urinating in public.

In one video, Bayne pulls a knife from his pocket and rushes toward Officer De La Torre, who is off-screen.

Another video shows Bayne running from police south on Queen Street.

D.A. Craig Stedman said several witnesses told detectives the officers repeatedly ordered Bayne to stop and put down the knife.

One officer used his taser twice, hitting Bayne once, still he didn’t stop.

“The entire incident would have ended with Bayne being taken into custody if he just dropped the knife,” Stedman said.

A few people who knew Bayne attended Stedman’s press conference to hear his decision.

Carmen Hassanein said it was unlike Bayne to cause trouble and she wishes he had listened to the officers.

“Mr. Stedman, I think he’s pretty accurate in what he was saying,” she said. “It, it’s sad. Either way, you know, somebody died.”

Officer De La Torre will return to duty in a few days. The other two officers were already back at work.

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