Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Antonio Santiago, fresh off work, had just parked his car on Turner Street in Allentown on Saturday and was off to visit a friend when he was set upon by two masked men who sprayed him with pepper spray, struck him with a gun and demanded money, authorities said.
The 36-year-old Allentown man told the robbers to hold on while he looked for the money. Instead, authorities said, he grabbed his licensed 9mm handgun and fired a single shot at the men, identified as Andrew Eberts, 32, of no known address, and Shane Gesnaker, 30, of the Bucks County borough of Dublin.
The bullet hit Gesnaker, who fled but fell, fatally wounded, about 50 feet away.
In a statement Monday, Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin said Santiago, who had a carry permit, was justified in using deadly force in the encounter.
According to the statement, police responding to the shooting on the 1000 block of Turner found Eberts administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation to Gesnaker. Nearby, 29-year-old Kaitlin Acierno of Dublin was screaming that her boyfriend was dead, the statement said.
Police found a black BB gun in a nearby trashcan. Police said Gesnaker had used the gun to hit Santiago in the face.
Officials said the investigation revealed that Gesnaker, Eberts and Acierno planned to commit a robbery in that location and that the BB gun and pepper spray belonged to Acierno.
After Gesnaker was shot, Acierno recovered the BB gun and discarded the gun in a trashcan near the intersection of Russell and North Hazel streets, officials said.
Eberts and Acierno were charged Monday with one count each of robbery and criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, felonies of the first degree. Acierno is also charged with one count of tampering with evidence, a second-degree misdemeanor. They were arraigned on Monday night by District Judge Ron Manescu and sent to Lehigh County Jail under $125,000 bail each.
Police are still investigating a second homicide in the city on Saturday. Christopher Sappah, 28, was pronounced dead of “sharp force injuries” in his apartment on the 700 block of Walnut Street at 12:45 p.m., the Lehigh County coroner’s office said Monday.
https://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-allentown-homicide-arrests-20190218-story.html