Thursday, June 30, 2011

Reading, PA: Deputy killed in shootout in Pa.

READING, Pa., June 30 (UPI) -- A sheriff's deputy shot as a task force tried to serve a warrant in rural Pennsylvania died on the way to the hospital, police said Thursday.

The man who allegedly shot him was killed at the scene Wednesday evening, The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call reported. The shootout occurred in a wooded area near the Hawk Mountain Bird Sanctuary in Albany about 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

State Police reported that Berks County Deputy Kyle Pagerly, a K-9 officer, was shot as the task force searched for Matthew Connor, 25. Pagerly, 28, was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:44 p.m.

Connor's family said he had threatened in the past to kill himself by provoking police. He faced charges for an incident Monday when he allegedly threatened his family and girlfriend with guns and fired into the air at two properties his father owns on Pine Swamp Road in Albany.

State Police said members of the task force were taking to Connor's girlfriend when he ran from the house with an AK-47 and into the woods.

Pagerly served in the Army as a military police officer in Kosovo and Iraq and was promoted to sergeant. He had extensive police training, the newspaper said.

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