The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office has concluded its investigation of an officer-involved shooting at the Penn Town Shopping Center, Penn Township, where the fleeing and armed suspect was shot by an officer responding to a burglary in progress call.

Charges have been filed against the suspect, 36-year-old Christopher Rivera, who remains under guard at an area hospital. Rivera is charged with robbery, and multiple counts of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and sexual assault of two female employees of the Calm Spa, Suite 104, in the 1200 block of Lancaster Road, Manheim. 

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams reviews all police-involved shootings in the county and decides whether the use of force was justified under the law.  District Attorney Adams has concluded that the responding officer was legally justified when the officer fired at Rivera after Rivera ran out of the rear door to the business, refused to follow several police commands, reached in his waistband and produced what the officer identified as a firearm and continued to flee.  

The responding officer fired at Rivera, who was struck two times as he began to jump over a guardrail and then collapsed. The firing officer and other responding officers then took Rivera into custody and performed life saving measures.

On August 27, 2024, at 8:18 p.m., officers with the Northern Lancaster County Regional Police Department Police (NLCRPD) were dispatched to the Penn Town Shopping Center for a “burglary in progress” call at the massage business.  Officers proceeded to the Calm Spa.  Two officers entered the front of the business as two officers (hereinafter officers 1 and 2) arrived at the rear of the shopping center.  Upon entering the front of the business, the officers were approached by two female employees and then immediately saw a male running towards the back of the business.  An arriving officer radioed that the suspect was wearing a white t-shirt.  

Officers 1 and 2 had exited their vehicles and began approaching the rear of the shopping center at 8:26:51 pm.  Officer 1 then finds a door unlocked at the rear of what is actually a neighboring business and opens it to begin to investigate. 

The sequence of events then is as follows:

• The suspect that began to flee, later determined to be Rivera, ran out of the back door of the business. 
• Officer 2 is located to the suspect’s right walking toward the back wall to the complex and Officer 1 is to the left of the suspect looking into the interior of Suite 102. 
• Officer 1 then hears a door to their left slam open and observed Rivera exit the spa wearing the white t-shirt.
• At 8:27:30 pm, Officers 1 and 2 order the suspect numerous times to “get down, get on the ground” and “get down, show me your hands” as the suspect continues to flee and ignore commands.
• After running out of the door, Rivera runs away from the building and begins to turn toward Officer 1, but then veers away and runs toward the edge of the parking lot away from the building.
• Officer 1 then sees suspect reach under his shirt and grab what appeared to be a firearm while continuing to run, now with his hands out of view.
• Video shows that after Rivera grabbed the firearm, Rivera looked back to his right in the direction of Officer 2, with his hands out of view of Officer 1. 
• At 8:27:34 p.m., Officer 1 fired twice at Rivera as Rivera jumped over a guardrail and then disappeared behind a parked car.  
• Officer 1 then finds Rivera laying in the weeds and orders Rivera to show his hands and Rivera complied.

Officer 1 immediately announced that Rivera had a gun in his hands.  Officers then secured Rivera and began rendering first-aid.  Rivera informs officers that he had a BB gun and that he threw it.  Officers searched and recovered a black pellet gun which closely resembled that of a semi-automatic handgun about 20 feet away from Rivera in the weeds.  Rivera was hit in the lower left leg and lower left back. 

The events detailed above were captured on body worn camera and mobile video recording from the police cruiser.  These videos will not be released at this time due to the pending prosecution of Rivera.

After Officer 1 clearly observed Rivera reach under his t-shirt and produce a realistic looking weapon, there is no question that Officer 1 had a reasonable belief that their life and the life of Officer 2 was in danger.  As a result, they reasonably believed that the use of deadly force was necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury to themselves or Officer 2 and were therefore justified in the use of deadly force.

Additionally, Officer 1 was justified in using deadly force as they reasonably believed that the use of such force was necessary to prevent the suspect from evading arrest by escape and the officer reasonably believed both that the suspect had committed a forcible felony (burglary/robbery), and was in possession of deadly weapon during his attempted escape.

“The law recognizes that police officers have no duty to retreat from making an arrest and allows law enforcement to use deadly force in this precise scenario.”  District Attorney Adams said. “Here, during a rapid four to five second encounter, the officer quickly and accurately perceived the suspect from the armed robbery, observed the suspect reaching for and producing a weapon, while ignoring police commands and attempting to evade arrest.  The officer was completely justified in using deadly force in this scenario.”

The name of the officer will not be released as it has been determined that no crime has been committed. Rivera remains hospitalized and under guard with bail set at $1,000,000 for the pending charges, of which he is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.