Crime & Safety
Police Shoot, Kill Man in Drexel Hill After Online Threats
Joseph A. Pacini, 52, of Clifton Heights was shot after officers attempted to arrest him in Drexel Hill during rush hour Tuesday.
Police shot and killed a 52-year-old man in Drexel Hill Tuesday evening, after he had posted a trio of threatening rants on YouTube.
Joseph A. Pacini of Clifton Heights was shot after officers attempted to arrest him near Garrett Road and Shadeland Avenue in Drexel Hill during rush hour Tuesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Police said during the arrest attempt, Pacini tried to run over officers. That’s when the shots were fired, 6ABC reported.
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Police were seeking Pacini after he had uploaded three videos to YouTube since Monday that included violent threats against police. They were alerted to his behavior after an employee at the gym he frequented said he was acting irrationally, the Inquirer said.
In the YouTube rants, Pacini makes references to being followed by police, CIA and FBI agents and threatens retaliation if his freedoms are taken away.
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The first of three YouTube videos, which Pacini titled Sara Bareilles - Joe Pacini FBI ordered hit on me!, is a nearly seven-minute diatribe featuring references to singer Sara Bareilles, as well as explicit threats that he intended to kill police officers.
“”So you’re going to try to bring me down? I will (expletive) kill you and your whole (expletive) family, all right? So go ahead and (expletive) with me,” Pacini said in the video, posted Monday evening.
On Tuesday, Pacini posted two more videos. The first, titled Joe Pacini’s Response to the CIA-FBI Mafias’ Message of Matt Huffnall, was five minutes long and included more threats.
“You’re people destroyed me and tortured me and continue to destroy me every single second,” Pacini said in the online message for the Haverford Detective.
“There is no way I’m going to allow anyone to take my freedom away again,” said Pacini.
The last video, which was shared shortly before his fatal altercation with police, shows him leaving a voice mail for the detective.
Pacini had a history of mental illness and has been previously committed, police told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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