Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
No criminal charges will be filed in a fatal shooting from this summer in Allentown, after Lehigh County’s district attorney found the shooter acted in self defense.
Edwin Diaz-Rivera, 37, of Allentown, was shot in the body the night of July 9 in the 700 block of North 11th Street in the city, and later pronounced dead at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, the Lehigh County coroner previously said.
Diaz-Rivera’s death was ruled a homicide. On Wednesday, District Attorney Jim Martin said he found the killing was justified self-defense under the state’s “castle doctrine.”
Pennsylvania law states a person may use deadly force to protect themselves or others if the person believes force is necessary to protect against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping or sexual intercourse compelled by force or threat, Martin said in a news release.
Investigators learned that the night of the killing, Diaz-Rivera was involved in multiple assaults of a victim, one of which happened after Diaz-Rivera and others forced their way into the victim’s home.
The night of the killing, prosecutors said Diaz-Rivera had an argument with people who lived in the 700 block of North 11th Street in Allentown and he assaulted one of the residents.
Diaz-Rivera reportedly threatened the residents that he would come back to the home with weapons and other people; he returned to the home a few minutes later with three more people, prosecutors said.
Witnesses and video surveillance showed Diaz-Rivera and the other people forced their way into the home, and that the victim from the first assault was shoved into a glass coffee table that shattered, authorities said.
One of the occupants of the home, who legally owned and possessed a handgun, shot and killed Diaz-Rivera and then called 911, Martin said. The district attorney said he would not release the person’s identity.
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Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.