The father of a 12-year-old Pennsylvania girl who was killed while a
constable was serving an eviction notice has been charged with criminal
homicide in his daughter's death, prosecutors said.
Don Meyer allegedly pointed a loaded semi-automatic assault rife at the
chest of Constable Clarke Steele as they argued over an order to vacate
on January 11.
Steele fired one round, which struck the 57-year-old father in the arm
and then pierced the chest of his daughter, Ciara, who was hiding behind
him. She died at the scene.
She had been home from school that day because she was sick.
Prosecutors upgraded charges against Meyer on Thursday. He now faces
counts including criminal homicide, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated
assault, endangering the welfare of children and illegal possession of
weapons.
He is being held without bail in Pennsylvania's Perry County Jail and has pleaded not guilty.
Several eviction orders had been issued against Meyer, authorities said,
and he had been notified by telephone that a constable was on the way
to serve him with another notice. Meyer met the constable at the door of
his apartment with the rifle slung over his shoulder, authorities
said.
Meyer allegedly raised the loaded weapon and pointed it at Steele's chest as the two argued.
“The constable was there the day before to remind them that the next day was the day they had to be out,” family member Hope Cordas Rohde told INSIDE EDITION after the shooting. “Don had an arsenal of weapons and he had them ready. He wasn’t going to pay,” she said.
Perry County District Attorney Andrew Bender has said the constable
acted in self-defense and will not be charged in the shooting. The
officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
By law, Meyer was not allowed to possess firearms because he had
previously been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility,
authorities said. Constables who responded to the shooting said they
confiscated five weapons at Meyer's home.
Ciara's family blames her father for her death and they support the district attorney's decison to prosecute him for homicide.
“I think he is deserving of every single charge,” uncle Jason Gehman told ABC 27.
Ciara's grandmother, Alice Gehman, agreed. "I hope he never gets out,"
she told the station. "Because if he does, we are in trouble."
Fighting back tears, family members recounted how they recently sat down
with constable Steele after he requested a meeting with Ciara's kin.
The officer is distraught over her death, they said.
“He just needed to have some kind of closure - that we don’t blame him for this,” Alice Gehman said. “It went wonderful and this man has so much pain, I cannot even explain it to you.”
The grandmother said she wrapped her arms around the officer.
“When I was holding him and he was saying how sorry he was, I said ‘How are you?’ And he said, ‘I can’t breathe.'''
She told him, "Just slow down, because everyone is having trouble breathing, believe me.”
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