Family, friends not surprised by verdict
Lisa Scheller said Michael Ellerbe wanted to go to her house in Lemont Furnace the night before his fatal shooting He wanted to stay overnight with her five kids and his dog, which Scheller, his godmother, kept for him. There were also Christmas presents for him under her tree.
But Scheller told him to ask his dad for permission when he came home. If dad said it was OK, she said she would have gladly driven to his house and picked him up.
She hugged him before she left, and that was the last time she saw him or heard from him.
“That’s the sad part of it,” Scheller said Monday, while waiting for a coroner’s jury to decide if the state police officer that shot her 12-year-old godson on Dec. 24th acted justifiably.
“That’s the nightmare I live.”
Scheller, other family members and friends said police were covering up the true details of Ellerbe’s death after attending Monday’s 12-hour coroner’s inquest. Even though they didn’t believe the police account of the incident, they expected the jury to rule the shooting justified.
After the “justifiable homicide” verdict was read, Scheller said the ruling did not surprise her.
“My baby’s dead and I don’t like what went on in there,” Scheller said outside of the courtroom where the inquest was held. Other family members declined to comment, quickly leaving the crowded courtroom.
Clinton Anderson, president of Fayette County Chapter of the NAACP, said the inquest was “one-sided” and a “circus.”
He said a major problem with the proceeding was the lack of blacks on the jury.
The all-white jury deliberated about 40 minutes before rendering its decision. The foreman said the trooper who fired the shot, Samuel Nassan, “acted in a reasonable manner according to Pa. Law.”
Nassan testified that he shot Ellerbe believing that he had shot trooper Juan Curry.
Curry and Nassan told the jury that they were pursuing a stolen car driven by Ellerbe that day, but Ellerbe ignored several commands to “show his hands” and fled. During a foot chase down an alley in Uniontown, Curry said he fell over a fence while chased the boy and his gun accidentally discharged during his fall.
Nassan said he thought the boy shot Curry so he shot the boy.
Attorney Joel Sansone, who represents Ellerbe’s family, said he and Geoffrey Fieger, a nationally known civil rights attorney from Michigan, will file a federal civil rights law suit possibly this week.
“Just watch us,” Sansone said.
Joseph Brown of Brownsville, who is a friend of Ellerbe’s father Michael Hickenbottom, also predicted a ruling in favor of the police.
“Everything fit a justified shooting,” Brown said. “It seemed they put on a show to justify that shooting.”