Officer recounts use of weapon in assault trial
A Uniontown police officer told a Fayette County jury on Wednesday that he thought he was going to be run over and killed when the driver of a van he was chasing backed up toward him. Officer David Rutter said he was outside his police car ordering the driver of the van, John B. Smith, to get out of the vehicle when Smith backed up toward him. Rutter said he tried to jump out of the way, but fell to the ground.
“What was going through your mind at that time?” asked Assistant District Attorney Mark Mehalov.
“I was going to be run over. I knew I was going to be run over and killed,” said Rutter, who fired four shots at the vehicle.
Smith, 31, of Uniontown was ultimately arrested and charged with aggravated and simple assault, reckless endangerment and fleeing from police.
“As I was going down and knew I couldn’t get out of the way, I fired four shots at the undercarriage … of the van,” testified Rutter.
None of those shots hit any of the three occupants of the van.
Rutter said he fired the shots in an attempt to stop the van so that he would not get hit.
The van did not hit Rutter, but rather changed direction, accelerating forward toward a house, said Rutter.
The van hit a pine tree, prompting Rutter and officer Donald Gmitter, who was in a second marked car during the chase, to begin shouting verbal commands for the driver to exit the vehicle. A woman jumped out at that point, both testified.
Gmitter testified he saw the driver, Smith, hanging out of the passenger side of the vehicle with his hands out. Rutter pulled him out of the vehicle.
Another woman was also inside the van, according to testimony. As the driver, only Smith was charged criminally.
Rutter testified he came across the van when he was dispatched to Hogsett Street by the 911 center on a report of a suspicious van around 5:20 a.m. last Aug. 8. Rutter testified that when he saw the van, its headlights were not on, even though it was dark. He turned on his lights in an attempt to conduct a traffic stop, but the van did not slow until Bailey Street, near the entrance to Laurel Highlands Senior High School, testified Rutter.
He testified he repeatedly ordered the driver of the van to turn the vehicle off and show his hands, but the driver only put his left hand out of the window. When Gmitter crested the hill along Bailey Street, both officers testified that the driver fled the scene.
The two followed, at times hitting speeds above 100 mph, as the van went along Gallatin Avenue Extension. Both officers testified that the driver attempted to get onto the Connellsville Street off-ramp of Route 119, which would have put the van the wrong way along the road.
Rutter testified he blocked the van’s path with his car and the van headed to the right exit to get onto Route 119 northbound.
Around Penn State Fayette campus, Gmitter testified he passed the van in an attempt to slow the chase, but the van turned right on to Mount Braddock Road. Gmitter testified he caught up to Rutter and the van, and they all pulled onto Hill Street in the village of Mount Braddock. That street, a dead end road, is where the van ultimately hit a tree and stopped, according to testimony.
Although Uniontown police started the pursuit, because Rutter fired his weapon, state police were called in to investigate the case.
Trooper Thomas Broadwater testified that he interviewed Smith, along with Rutter and Gmitter about what happened.
Smith waived his right to remain silent and told Broadwater that he did not see Rutter when he was backing up, and was not trying to hit him, testified the trooper.
Broadwater testified that police were able to locate two points on the van that were hit with bullets: the frame of the rear driver’s side wheel well and the driver’s side rear bumper.
Assistant Public Defender Mary Campbell Spegar asked Broadwater if Rutter was listed as a suspect in reports about the case because he fired his gun. Broadwater testified he was.
Such action is typical police protocol until the officer is cleared of wrongdoing when firing a weapon.
District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon ultimately reviewed the case and decided in early September that prosecutors would not file charges against Rutter.
The trial will pick up this morning before Judge Ralph C. Warman.