SUNBURY - Erick R. Trometter, now facing two felony counts of aggravated assault, was placed in jail in connection with his confrontation with a Sunbury police officer that led to the officer shooting and seriously wounding the defendant.
Trometter, 23, came before Magisterial District Judge Michael Diehl, of Milton, Thursday for arraignment on the charges nearly four months after the incident. He was placed in the Northumberland County Prison on $250,000 straight bail.
During the arraignment, the only words he spoke were to ask the judge if he would still be on house arrest. Diehl said Trometter would be transported to prison.
After the July 8 incident, Trometter was placed in the county jail for one day following his release from Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, after being treated for an abdomen/groin injury he suffered in the shooting. He was in the hospital seven weeks.
He has spent the past two months under electronic house arrest at the home of his mother, Tammy, in Elizabethville.
Trometter is also charged with misdemeanors of possession of an instrument of crime, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. The charges were filed by state police Trooper Ronald Zanella, of the Stonington barracks, with information obtained from an investigation into the shooting by Brad Hare, then acting chief, now chief, of the Sunbury Police Department.
An investigation conducted by Northumberland County District Attorney Ann Targonski determined Hare was justified in shooting Trometter.
On Wednesday, the court denied Trometter's request to have charges dismissed in the alleged July 8 assault of his 67-year-old grandmother.
Thursday's charges stem from an incident a few hours after that assault when Trometter was confronted by Hare, as Trometter walked along Mile Post Road just outside the city in Upper Augusta Township. Trometter became nervous and agitated and refused to comply with a request for a pat-down.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, Trometter was passively resisting until Hare attempted to retrieve a brown-handled object protruding from Trometter's right pocket.
Police said, at that point, Trometter pushed Hare back, hit the chief's arm with his hand and pulled a large knife from his pocket. Hare put distance between them as Trometter said he wasn't going back to jail and held the knife in an aggressive manner.
Hare then pointed a Taser at Trometter and commanded him to put down the knife, but Trometter advanced toward him. Hare deployed the Taser and hit Trometter in the chest, dropping him to one knee before he recovered and continued to advance toward the officer.
The chief deployed the Taser two more times, but Trometter swatted the prongs away and continued to advance. Hare then threw the Taser away and drew his service weapon, pointing it at Trometter and giving him verbal commands to drop the knife.
Trometter continued to advance toward Hare with the knife pointed at the officer.
"Chief Hare, when Trometter was within 10 to 15 feet of his reactionary gap, discharged one round from his service weapon into the center mass of Erick Trometter to stop his action," the affidavit reads.
Diehl conducted the arraignment in the office of Magisterial District Judge Benjamin Apfelbaum, of Sunbury. Apfelbaum is out of town this week. Trometter's preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Nov. 13.