Family of man killed by Wilkinsburg police calls for disbanding department, homicide charges

The family of a man shot and killed late last year by a Wilkinsburg police officer is calling for the entire department to be disbanded and for the District Attorney’s Office to file homicide charges against the officer.

Paul Jubas, who represents the family of Romir Talley, said Monday that a witness has come forward and contradicted the narrative given by Robert Gowans, the Wilkinsburg officer who shot Talley just after 1 a.m. Dec. 22.

Talley, 24, was shot seven times after a chase that lasted less than a minute, according to information released by Allegheny County Police in the days after the shooting. Authorities said he turned and fired once at officers, prompting Gowans to return fire.

Wilkinsburg officials did not identify Gowans as the officer who opened fire until last week’s borough council meeting.

“Until recently, Officer Gowans’s statement was the entirety of what the Allegheny County Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office were working with,” Jubas said. “Recently, a witness has come forward, and that witness has contradicted what Officer Gowans said.”

Jubas said there is evidence to back up this witness statement, though he did not elaborate on the witness’s account, what the evidence might be or why it took months for the witness to come forward.

Allegheny County Police Superintendent Coleman McDonough said only that Jubas had “brought some information to our attention earlier (Monday) afternoon.”

“We will be looking into that information to determine if it has any relevancy to the investigation,” he said.

Officers the night of the shooting were responding to a 911 call in which the caller reported a man wearing a black jacket and gray sweatpants had pulled a gun on them near the intersection of Penn Avenue and wood Street. Responding officers encountered Talley, who they said matched the caller’s description. They asked him to remove his hands from his pockets, and Talley took off.

Wilkinsburg officers are not equipped with body-worn cameras. Department officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s office, referred to a statement he released last week in which Zappala called it ironic that officials from the federal to local level – “especially Wilkinsburg officials” – won’t invest in technology like body cams that could help answer the question of what really happened.

“The lack of this type of evidence has greatly complicated the process that my office has in place to deal with these types of investigations,” he said.

Jubas said police encountered two men before Talley that matched the caller’s description, and they were let go without incident.

“Romir made a split decision – the type of decision that every black kid in America has to make if the cops are rolling up on you: That’s to risk it or run, and Romir chose to run,” Jubas said.

Talley was walking that morning because he walked everywhere, said his grandmother, Patricia Talley. He said it calmed him down and helped him de-stress.

“We have good days and bad days,” she said outside the City-County Building in Downtown Pittsburgh, where the family had gathered for Jubas’s press conference. “We still cry for him.”

She said her family just wants the full truth of what happened.

Jubas said that will take a criminal trial.

“We have to see this evidence analyzed rigorously through the adversarial process in a criminal homicide trial in the courthouse,” he said. “That’s the only way we can possibly get justice.