Officers 'Justified' In Fatal Shooting Of Felon, Shippensburg Alum In Carlisle, DA
Nathaniel Lawrence Liberator, of Carlisle, was shot dead after police attempted to detain him for questioning following a disturbance in the area of the 300 block of C Street at 1:59 p.m. on Jan. 13, as Daily Voice previously reported.
The officers were seen on body camera calmly asking him to stop walking away from them, the DA explained. The officers had no information about his mental health issues or feelings about the police, although he was swearing and saying negative things about the police as they followed him, as explained at the conference.
One officer took a taser out but then the pair discussed it and determined Liberator's heavy clothes would prevent the taser from properly working and high wind was also a factor so pepper spray was also ruled out, the DA detailed at the press conference. Sometime during all this Liberator unleashed a dog with him.
Then the following happened, the DA stated in a release:
"Officers attempted to stop him by grabbing hold of his arms. He resisted the officers’ attempts to detain him and fought with the officers. This resulted in Liberator and one of the officers falling to the ground where the struggle continued. Liberator, during the course of the struggle, brandished a sharpened deer antler and attempted to stab one of the officers multiple times. The second officer, fearing for the life of his partner, fired two shots at Liberator to stop his assault."**Note: Screenshots from the body camera footage shared by DA McCornmack of Liberator attacking the officer with the sharpened deer antler are pictured above.**
One bullet struck above Liberator's right nipple and went out his back but the other bullet was lodged in his torso, McCormack explained. The officers' body camera footage showed them immediately start treating Liberator in an attempt to save his life.
He was out on $20,000 in bail ahead of his February trial for a Sept. 3, 2023, incident where he was left with two misdemeanors for simple assault, defiant trespass, and a summary charge for harassment - subject another to physical contact, court records detail. Those charges have been dropped following his passing, McCormack explained at a press conference. He was wanted for questioning after swearing and yelling racial slurs at a child and taking the boy's bow and arrow after he thought the child shooting at a snowbank was aiming at him, the DA said at the conference.
Liberator was a convicted felon for a robbery he committed with a group when he was 19 in 2009, his first criminal docket shows. He served approximately five years in prison after pleading guilty in 2010.
On May 9, 2020, he graduated from Shippensburg University with a Bachelor of Science degree, according to his Facebook. He had struggled with his mental health and his family attempted to have him involuntarily committing on Jan. 8, as Daily Voice previously reported.
The PSP Troop H Major Case Team and the Carlisle PD's internal investigations continue. All of the officers involved remain on leave.
The officers involved and the family were all informed of the DA's findings before the press conference and the release.
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