The white man who shot and killed Jamaican immigrant Peter Spencer on a camping trip last year will not face any charges, ABC News reports.
Spencer, the man’s former co-worker, went on the camping trip with a group of people and was shot nine times. However, Venango County District Attorney Shawn White says there is “enough evidence” that the shooting was in self-defense.
“We believe in this case that there is enough evidence presented for self-defense that we are not going to be able to overcome our burden and show this was not self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, and for that reason, there will be no charges filed against the suspect in this case,” White told reporters. “This is my call; I believe it’s the right one.”
As reported by REVOLT, Spencer went on the camping trip with a group of white men in Rockland Township, Pennsylvania on Dec. 11, 2021. Early the next morning, Pennsylvania State Police were called to the scene and found Spencer’s body on the front lawn riddled with nine bullets.
The men say Spencer took hallucinogenic mushrooms during the trip and started “acting crazy.” Psilocin was found in his system, per his toxicology report. He allegedly began firing his gun at the campers, which is when his former coworker fatally shot him. Multiple firearms, controlled substances and “ballistic evidence” were recovered by police at the scene.
The man who shot Spencer will also not face state hate crime charges as Corp. Aaron Allen of the Heritage Affairs Team, which investigates hate crimes, says they haven’t detected any racial bias in the case.
“We also have been making sure that there isn’t any hate and/or bias detected throughout this investigation, and I can tell you right now that there’s not been any sort of hate and/or bias detected,” Allen said.
However, Spencer’s family says they are still going to pursue federal hate crime charges over his death.
“We are not surprised by it. This is the type of behavior we have seen from the PA State Police and Venango County District Attorney from the outset,” Paul Jubas, the attorney representing Spencer’s family, said in a statement.
On Twitter, Spencer’s father also wrote, “We will squeeze the venom of corruption of whom is involved in the killing and covering up.”