In their opening statements today, Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck and defense attorney Mark Daffner will lay out their plans for the trial of 33-year-old Ray Shetler Jr., the New Florence man accused of gunning down Saint Clair Township Police Officer Lloyd Reed Jr. in November of 2015.
Peck will tell the jury that Shetler was well-acquainted with Reed, and that he emerged from the home of his girlfriend, Kristen Luther, intent on shooting it out with the officer. Daffner will say that Shetler did not know it was Reed, and therefore could not know that he was a police officer, and that he fired his rifle in self defense after Reed shot first.
A jury of six men and six women was selected this week to hear the case. Shetler is charged with both first degree and third degree murder, and with charges related to the domestic violence for which Reed was responding to Luther’s house. Additional charges for stealing a pickup truck in his escape attempt will also be adjudicated.
Tomorrow, the jury is expected to journey to the scene of the shooting on Ligonier Street in New Florence and to the nearby site across the Conemaugh River where Shetler hid the rifle and the clothing he had been wearing during the incident.
