- The gun Torreise Armstrong brandished during a fatal confrontation with police on Saturday was reportedly used in a drive-by shooting earlier that day.
- Armstrong, 40, was shot and killed after wounding Chester Police Detective Steve Byrne.
- Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Byrne, the survivor, “has become a hero to all of the people of Chester for stopping a very dangerous person.”
Authorities say the gun used to wound a detective during a pursuit in southeastern Pennsylvania on Saturday was used to wound another person in a drive-by shooting earlier in the day. did.
Delaware County prosecutors and Chester police announced Monday that the gun belonged to 40-year-old Torreise Armstrong. Mr Armstrong was shot and killed on Saturday afternoon when Chester Police Detective Steve Byrne, who was injured, and three other officers returned fire.
Byrne was hit once during the shootout and was hospitalized, but was released from the hospital on Monday and is recuperating at home with his family, officials said. “He became a hero to all of the people of Chester by stopping a very dangerous individual,” District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said.
Pennsylvania authorities identify police officer injured in gunfight
He noted that Byrne was the third officer in the county to be injured by gunfire in the past week and a half.
Stollsteimer said authorities identified Armstrong as the suspect in a drive-by shooting that occurred in Chester at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. He fired shots from a black car registered to Armstrong. The car was found Saturday afternoon and was tracked from Chester to Upland and back to Chester, where a tire blew out and Armstrong emerged, officials said.
Stollsteimer said Armstrong “literally started shooting as soon as he got out of the car” and used a 9mm semi-automatic rifle to fire at the officers, wounding Byrne. Byrne was also attacked by two Upland police officers and a Chester Township police officer.
The gun used to shoot and kill a Pennsylvania state trooper was also reportedly used in an earlier drive-by assault. (Fox News)
Armstrong suffered multiple blows and died Saturday night at Crozer Chester Medical Center. Stollsteimer said initial ballistics testing showed Armstrong’s gun was the same weapon used in the earlier drive-by shooting.
“Detective Byrne was actually shot because the officers were trying to save lives, but they were also trying to protect the community,” Stollsteimer said.
Chester Police Chief Stephen Gretzky said Byrne has been with the department for 16 years and is one of its senior detectives. Gretzky said he was originally scheduled to take Saturday off, but he was called in as lead investigator on a drive-by shooting.
Stolsteimer’s office is handling the investigation and said more work is needed, but “the actions of all of the officers who fired their weapons were completely justified.”
On February 7, in another part of the county, gunfire struck a home in East Lansdowne, wounding two police officers, burning the home, and later recovering six bodies from the ashes. Stollsteimer blamed the violence on a “culture of affinity for weapons” that was destroying communities.
“Too many people have guns when they shouldn’t have them,” he said, the day authorities announced first-degree murder charges for the 15-year-old’s death. I mentioned that. Another 15-year-old boy was found in possession of a “ghost gun.” The gun had no serial number and was a privately made gun that was virtually untraceable.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“There is no way in this rational world that a 15-year-old boy could get his hands on a junk gun that exists only for criminals to go out and commit crimes without a serial number to trace it.” said.
