Trial date set in Pittsburgh police shooting case, jury from central Pa. will hear case

Trial date set in Pittsburgh police shooting case

PITTSBURGH — A man accused of fatally shooting three Pittsburgh police officers will go on trial later this year with a jury selected from halfway across the state.

Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning says jury selection for 23-year-old Richard Poplawski will begin Sept. 20 in Harrisburg, about 165 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The judge agreed to pick the panel from outside the Pittsburgh area because of intense publicity. The judge is allowing up to two weeks for jury selection. The trial itself is to begin in Pittsburgh on Oct. 12.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if they’re able to convict Poplawski in the shooting deaths of Pittsburgh police officers Paul Sciullo II, Stephen Mayhle and Eric Kelly on April 4, 2009.