Family members of a Jamaican man who attended a camping trip in rural Pennsylvania and was allegedly shot by his white coworker are frustrated that the gunman will not be charged, ABC News reports.
On Dec. 12, Peter Bernardo Spencer was shot nine times. Police found him face down in front of the cabin when they arrived on the scene. Four people were taken into custody, including the alleged shooter, an unidentified 25-year-old who admitted to shooting Spencer in “self-defense.”
After speaking with the Venango County DA’s office, all four individuals were released pending an ongoing investigation, Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports.
On Tuesday, District Attorney Shawn White said that officials believed there was “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.”
Spencer, who worked in construction and contracting, was invited by a former co-worker to stay at his cabin on Carls Road in Rockland Township, along the Allegheny River, KDKA-TV reports.
“This was something they would do from time to time. They would go out to the woods together and shoot guns … drink beer, have a good time,” Paul Jubas, the family’s attorney, said, according to NBC News.
Spencer started “acting crazy” after consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms. White said that Spencer shot several rounds from the AK-47 given to him and held the other campers at gunpoint, causing Spencer’s co-worker to fatally shoot him, according to ABC News.
Police said they had also discovered various weapons, “ballistic evidence” and controlled substances at the cabin.
Now, his loved ones, including his sibling, Tehilah Spencer, and his fiancee, Carmela King, are demanding answers for his death.
“He was the only black individual at the camp site and is being portrayed as the aggressor,” King wrote on a GoFundMe account she created for her fiance.
Tehilah wrote on the GoFundMe account that Peter was “MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD!” during a hate crime in a “MODERN DAY LYNCHING.”
The family issued a statement through Jubas after the district attorney announced no charges would be filed.
“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,” the family said, according to ABC News.
Cindy Chung, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, will decide if federal hate crime charges will be brought against Peter’s co-worker.
