Attorney: Family of Wilkinsburg man killed by police wants transparent investigation
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The family of a Wilkinsburg man shot and killed by police Dec. 22 after he fired at them during a foot chase wants the investigation into his death to be transparent, Pittsburgh attorney Todd J. Hollis said.
Hollis is voluntarily representing Romir Talley’s family. During a press conference Tuesday, he said the family wants to know the truth about what happened when Talley was shot.
“Mom is willing to accept the truth whatever that truth is,” Hollis said of Talley’s mother, Latasha. “All of us need to be held accountable whether that’s Ramir or the police officer. I’m not saying the police officer did anything wrong.”
Talley, 24, died at 1:16 a.m. in the 900 block of Center Street in Wilkinsburg, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Wilkinsburg police were responding to a call about a man threatening someone with a gun at Penn Avenue and Wood Street. The man was later identified as Talley. Allegheny County police say he fired a gun at police, who then shot and killed him.
County police and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office are investigating.
The circumstances surrounding Talley’s death are similar to his father, Hill District native Vincent Napper, who was 28 when he was killed in a 2005 shootout with Pittsburgh police in the city’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood. Napper was shot 20 times and fired between four and seven shots at police.
Latasha Talley called her son a “young man with goals and a bright future,” according to a statement Hollis read Tuesday.
“Our family wants justice. We would like a full and transparent investigation into Romir’s death,” Latasha Talley wrote in the statement.