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Sunday, December 29, 2002

By Bill Heltzel, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A 12-year-old Uniontown boy shot in the back during a police chase will be buried on Tuesday even as his family struggles to find the means to pay for the funeral expenses.

"There is still a pressing, humanitarian concern," said Joel Sansone, the attorney representing the family of Michael Ellerbe. "This is a complete tragedy."

Ellerbe died on Christmas Eve. State police said the boy was shot Tuesday afternoon during a foot chase after he wrecked and then abandoned a stolen sport utility vehicle. Rookie trooper Samuel Nassan and his partner, trooper Juan Curry, were chasing Ellerbe through a residential section of Uniontown when the shooting took place.

Sansone said more than two bullets may have been fired. Ellerbe was struck once -- through the heart.

A fund to help pay for funeral expenses has been set up at Calvary United Methodist Church, 32 Clark St., Uniontown 15401, but contributors have already been stepping forward.

One person, who wanted to remain anonymous, donated a burial vault and a plot at Sylvan Heights Cemetery in Uniontown, but $815 is needed to prepare the gravesite. That money is in addition to $2,930 needed for funeral costs at Muriel Lantz Funeral Home, which is handling the arrangements.

Organizations including the NAACP and churches such as Calvary United Methodist have offered to help defray the cost.

"I've received calls and the family has gotten calls from people wishing to send money," funeral director Muriel Lantz said.

State police have released few details of the shooting. Nassan and Curry have been put on desk duty and an internal affairs office is investigating.

Sansone has advanced the theory that one of the troopers slipped during the chase and accidentally discharged his gun and that the other trooper then fired his gun.

Sansone said he believes state police will conduct a proper investigation and that the results will be known in a week or two.

"The first issue is the family's grief and their need to bury their child," Sansone said. "The next issue is a full investigation."

He said the family is content for now to wait for the outcome of the inquiry and then decide how well it was conducted.

"We consider these officers innocent until proven guilty. If they are innocent of wrongdoing, they should be exonerated and reinstated," Sansone said.

Sansone said the evidence so far suggests an accident.

"I firmly believe that it was just a bad judgment made in a split second."

Visitation will be held at Calvary United Methodist Church, 32 Clark St. in Uniontown, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday. The funeral will begin at 1 p.m. and burial will be at Sylvan Heights Cemetery.