HARRISBURG — The Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office Criminal Investigation Division is investigating an overnight police-involved shooting that left one man dead in Harrisburg.
Albert Earl Morton Jr., 31, was shot and killed at 1:35 a.m. across from Row 34 in the Hall Manor Housing Area, authorities say.
The Dauphin County Coroner has scheduled an autopsy for Friday morning.
According to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office, police made stopped Morton’s vehicle in the 1400 block of Vernon Street at 12:45 a.m. Morton allegedly fled, striking the officer making the stop with his vehicle. The officer was not injured.
At 1:30 a.m., Harrisburg Police observed the vehicle and followed it. As the marked police vehicles followed, the occupants of Morton’s vehicle allegedly threw drugs and drug paraphernalia out of the moving car, authorities say.
Police stopped the car in Hall Manor, and the passenger fled on foot. Morton, who was driving, was shot and killed as the vehicle accelerated toward a uniformed Harrisburg Police officer, according to authorities.
At the time of the apparent flight from police, Morton was the subject of an active arrest warrant for a residential burglary, authorities say.
The passenger in Morton’s vehicle, Arthur L. Brothers Jr., was charged with possession of cocaine base, possession of drug paraphernalia, and tampering with physical evidence, according to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office.
The District Attorney’s Office announced it will conduct a comprehensive review of this use of deadly force. The focus of the investigation will be whether Morton’s use of the moving vehicle as a weapon justified the use of deadly force by the police officer.
