White man who shot dead black co-worker who was high on hallucinogenic mushrooms won’t face charge

Prosecutors have decided they will not press charges against the white man who shot and killed his black co-worker during a camping trip.  

Vernango County (Pennsylvania) District Attorney Shawn White made the announcement Tuesday about the unidentified white man who shot and killed 29-year-old Jamaican immigrant Peter Bernardo Spencer last December at a Pennsylvania cabin.

‘We believe in this case that there is enough evidence presented for self-defense that we are not going to be able to overcome our burden and show this was not self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, and for that reason, there will be no charges filed against the suspect in this case,’ White said on Tuesday. 

‘This is my call,’ he added. ‘I believe it’s the right one.’  

DA Shawn White (pictured) announced prosecutors will not bring any charges against the white man who shot and killed Peter Bernardo Spencer last December

Spencer’s father, Conrad Lee (pictured with son) angrily reacted to the DA’s decision, calling the investigation’s conclusions a ‘cover-up’

Spencer, of Pittsburgh, was shot nine times, two bullet wounds to his buttocks and one through the neck. He was the only black man invited on a hunting trip in rural Rockland Township with four other people December 12.

Spencer, who immigrated to America in 2013, worked in construction and contracting, and was asked to go on the trip by a former colleague. White said the unidentified 25-year-old co-worker who invited Spencer to the cabin shot and killed him in self-defense after Spencer began acting erratically.

White said that night Spencer, who had been drinking, smoking marijuana, and taking psychedelic mushrooms, began shooting his AK-47 into the sky.

According to witnesses, Spencer grew more angry and erratic, telling his frightened co-workers that ‘he was a god’, and demanding their car keys and phones, White said. 

White said Spencer’s white co-worker only shot him with his handgun after the 29-year-old pointed his rifle at him.

The DA said the co-worker shot Spencer because he believed he was going to kill him and three other guest who were hiding out of fear.

White said investigators determined the white co-worker was justified in shooting Spencer, even if Spencer never actually fired at him.

‘He did not have to wait for a gunshot to fire at him,’ Shawn White said of the shooter. ‘He did not have to wait for a verbal threat.’  

The case has been controversial, even dubbed a ‘modern day lynching,’ but Cpl. Aaron Allen of Heritage Affairs, the state police unit that investigates hate crimes, said on Tuesday there is no evidence of a hate crime and that he will not be bringing charges either.

‘We also have been making sure that there isn’t any hate and/or bias detected throughout this investigation, and I can tell you right now that there’s not been any sort of hate and/or bias detected,’ Allen said.    

Investigators’ conclusions have not impressed the Spencer family, who said they were not surprised by the announcement and vowed to continue to pursue justice, including holding a press conference next week with a forensic pathologist. 

DailyMail.com visited the remote rural property where Spencer was found dead with nine gunshot wounds

Spencer was reportedly shot nine times with most of his gunshot wounds in his back and once in his neck

Spencer had been invited to the home by a coworker who said he shot him in self-defense. Pictured: A side door at the hunting cabin with a sign reading ‘We Don’t Call 911’

‘We are not surprised by it, this is the type of behavior we have seen from the PA State Police and Venango County District Attorney from the outset,’ family attorney Paul Jubas said in a statement.   

Spencer’s mother, Icilda Spencer Hunter, told WTEA.com, she is devastated by White’s decision.  

‘I’m dead right now. That’s how I feel, dead, no emotion, nothing. I’m trying to protect my other son,’ Hunter said. 

The 29-year-old’s father Conrad Lee went even further, calling the DA’s conclusions a ‘cover-up’

‘This is just the beginning of the hand of justice/God coming down on the head of the snake. We will squeeze the venom of corruption of whom is involved in the killing and covering up in days to come right infront your eyes,’ he tweeted on Tuesday.  

‘Trust me, they won’t get away with killing my son and this corruption,’ he said in a follow up tweet. 

His parents have been frustrated with investigators since the December 12 incident, claiming they have been stonewalled since the investigation began.  

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com last month, Spencer’s fiancé Carmela King, 28, said she and Spencer’s family have more questions than answers.

‘No one has reached out to me, nor his mother, about anything concerning him or this investigation,’ she said. ‘I do believe the way it’s been handled it comes off as a racial situation.

‘I think the expectation was that it would be just another black man murdered and it would be swept under the rug. But that’s not the case here.’

King and Spencer’s family said it was impossible to rule out that race may have played a part, not only in the killing, but in the way it has been handled. 

Cops found illegal guns – including altered assault rifles – and drugs at the scene.  

King said that the co-worker’s self-defense claim makes no sense.

Regardless of what the man claims, she said: ‘I don’t understand why no one’s been arrested given the situation and the scenario.’

White said that night Spencer- who had been drinking, smoking marijuana and had taken psychedelic mushrooms- began shooting his AK-47 into the sky

Spencer was expecting his first child with fiancée Carmela King (pictured) when he was killed on December 12, 2021

Carmela King, 28, told DailyMail.com she and Spencer’s family have been stonewalled by investigators.

The family’s attorney, Paul Jubas, echoed her confusion telling DailyMail.com: ‘It’s a situation just dripping in criminality. There are felony charges all over that.

‘So, no matter what the alleged justification is, [regardless] of if there is a defense being asserted, it should not stop charges being pressed immediately.’

Instead, Jubas told DailyMail.com: ‘You essentially have this shadow investigation being conducted.

‘Not only does the family not know who may have been involved in this murder but the entire community of Venango County has no answers and they’re very suspicious of it and very concerned.

‘Absolutely nobody is being held accountable and there’s no reason whatsoever for nobody to be charged.’

Nothing had felt quite right about that December trip to the cabin, King recalled. But nothing felt wrong enough for her to caution her fiancé against going.

‘I dropped him off and tried to ping my location, so I knew exactly where to come back [to get him] because it was very rural,’ she said.

‘Shortly after [I left] I got a message saying, “Hey I’m just gonna stay, come pick me up the next day.” Which was weird.

‘I tried to call him. He didn’t answer. I just texted back, “Alright. Be safe. I love you and if you need me to come back tonight I will.”

‘I never heard from him again.’

King tried to call Spencer during the night, but he never picked up which, she said, was ‘unusual for him.’

It was particularly unusual as she had been feeling unwell earlier in the day and was three months pregnant.

She said: ‘He definitely would have said, “I love you”, back so that was unsettling. But at the same time, you try to think positive.’

But when he didn’t answer the following morning, King said: ‘I just had a hunch to get up and go. So, I got in the truck and drove over there probably around nine.’

King was about to turn down the long approach road to the cabin when Spencer’s mother, Icilda, called.

‘She was saying, “I need you to pull over.” She really didn’t want to tell me when I was driving. But I was already at the location [when] she ended up telling me he had passed.’

King pulled up where state troopers’ vehicles blocked the scene. She saw crime scene tape, flashing lights and Spencer’s body, laid out in the front yard.

She said: ‘The trooper stopped me from running up. I asked where everyone was, and they said they took people for questioning but that was it.’ 

Spencer, who had worked in construction and ran a catering company, had recently obtained his CDL (Class A Driving License) and planned to become a trucker.

‘He even talked about me and the baby going on the road with him and after a while, you know, we had plans to buy a house and try to boost our careers, just to increase our generational wealth,’ King said.

But she admits there were issues that Spencer had to address before he could move forward with the life that they wanted to build.

And today the family wonders if his bid to leave some past deeds behind may have played a part in his death.

Attorney Jubas explained: ‘Peter had a criminal case (involving illegal possession of a gun and drugs) that he was looking to clear at the time.’

The week before Spencer’s death the man who shot him went to his house and was, King said, going over the details of that case with Spencer.

And on December 10, the night before his death, Spencer told friends he saw two undercover cops lurking near his home and wondered if he was being watched.

That same night the man who later shot him sent an invitation to his family’s remote rural property to Spencer via Snapchat.

DailyMail.com has learned that that man also has a criminal history and, family attorney Jubas revealed, he and some others at the cabin that night have been implicated in a massive and ongoing federal investigation into ghost-guns.

‘Was Peter in a position where he knew too much about something more serious?’ Jubas asked.

‘He was wanting to start a new career, he had a new baby on the way, he would be motivated to cooperate with the feds perhaps if he thought it might help with his criminal case.

‘Was that fear the reason he ended up dead? He may not have been invited out with the intent of killing him, but did something go wrong?’

‘It’s possible but we just don’t know. And that’s the problem. We have all these questions and theories but where’s the investigation in all of this?’

Jubas continued: ‘What we do know is that there were at least two ghost guns on that scene, an ongoing federal investigation, controlled substances, a dead body and no other parties injured and still nobody has been charged or arrested.

‘You tell me how that makes any sense.’