Pennsylvania Man Shot Dead After Trying To Run Over Police With His Car

A Pennsylvania man who threatened to kill law enforcement was shot dead by police officers Tuesday, after he reportedly tried to run them over with his car. The man, 52-year-old Joseph Anthony Pacini, had uploaded two videos on YouTube this week threatening to kill police officers and begging singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles to save him, according to the Associated Press.

“I will f*****g kill you and your whole f*****g family!” Pacini screamed in one of his videos at the police officers who were after him. "Now Sara, this is up to you to come out and save me, " Picini said of the singer, calling her his "twin flame soul."

NBC News.

A group of local police officers stopped Pacini and asked him to get out of the vehicle. Pacini then allegedly reversed his car, crashed into the police vehicle behind him and tried to run down the other officers. The officers open fired at Pacini, hitting him several times until he was dead. No officers were injured and police told CBS News the man had a history of mental illness.

A string of similar incidents have occurred in cities across the nation, in light of protests against grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers involved in the killings of unarmed black men. New York Police Department officers Rafael Ramos and Winjian Liu were shot dead Dec. 20 in their patrol vehicles on a Brooklyn street by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who then took his own life. Brinsley had posted on social media earlier that day, saying, “I’m putting wings on pigs today” and referenced the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island in New York City.

On Dec. 28, two men open fired on a police vehicle patrolling through a gang-violent area in Los Angeles. The two officers inside the car were not injured. One suspect was later caught and the other was on the run. Police have yet to determine a motive for the shooting, but told the Associated Press there were no indications that the attack was linked to others aimed at police.