Medical Examiner Says Jamaican Immigrant Who Was Shot By White Man Was “Hunted Down”

The family of a Jamaican immigrant who was killed at a white co-worker’s Pennsylvania cabin wasn’t giving up on finding out what happened to him.

Peter Bernardo Spencer’s family hired a renowned medical expert to look into his death and was told that it appears he was ‘hunted down.’ 

The 29-year-old victim of Pittsburgh was shot nine times on December 12. Two of the bullets struck him in his buttocks, and one went through his neck.

The Daily Mail reported that Spencer was the only black man invited on the hunting trip with four other people in the rural Rockland Township area.

As his family continued to wait for answers from the town’s local police, they went a step further by hiring their own private investigator and medical examiner to look into the matter. 

‘There are nine shots fired beyond 24 inches of distance, or what we call long-distance shots,’ Dr. Cyril Wecht, who has investigated high profile deaths, such as President John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, and JonBenét Ramsey.

‘It’s like looking at someone who got hunted down, which is absolutely horrifying.’ 

Wecht has not been allowed to inspect Spencer’s body, and he hasn’t received a copy of the coroner’s report. However, he has reviewed pictures of his wounds that the embalmer provides us. 

The medical expert said it’s important for him to get the coroner’s report to complete his work. Especially since the funeral home put the surgical instrument trocar into Spencer’s injuries, causing them to be ‘destroyed’ and eliminating the possibility of further investigations of his gunshot wounds.   

The 25-year-old co-worker who invited the victim told police that he killed Spencer in self-defense and was then released by Venango County District Attorney Shawn White.

White has refused to identify the person who shot Spencer or the other three people involved, at least until his investigation is concluded. Police did say that all four men involved were questioned and let go after being questioned by the DA’s office. 

‘My initial thought is that it’s absurd to talk about self-defense with nine gunshot wounds,’ Wecht told The Philadelphia Inquirer.   

The family has requested that the state’s attorney general and federal officials take over the investigation, claiming it was racially motivated. 

Civil rights attorney Paul Jubas, who is representing Spencer’s family, has claimed that they are being ‘stonewalled’ by the authorities on the case. 

‘We’ve only received unacceptable answers that don’t make any sense,’ Jubas said.

‘And they’re now stonewalling us. They are preventing us from having our medical examiner, the best medical examiner in the country, do his work. There is no reason for that.’  

‘We are talking six bullets into the chest, two into the buttocks, and one we have a different opinion – either through the mouth or from the neck out of the mouth,’ stated Tim Stevens, CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project.

Spencer’s pregnant fiancée, Carmela King, took him to the cabin around 2 pm last month and was supposed to pick him up a few hours later. But she got a text shortly after saying he was planning on staying the night, the family’s attorney said. 

King never got a response to her last text message, which said: ‘Okay baby be safe I love you. Call me if you need me to come tonight.’  

She grew concerned and contacted her fiance’s mother, Icilda Spencer-Hunter, in her efforts to reach him throughout the night. The family attorney added that she even tried to get in touch with the co-worker who is now-suspect via social media. 

Police arrived at the scene around 2:30 am and found Spencer’s deceased body splayed out in the front yard.

His fiancee didn’t know of his death and drove up the secluded driveway and saw his body in the grass surrounded by police.

‘We have been told that there was an altercation and the people who shot him were in fear for their lives, but this makes no sense as he was with four other white men when he was shot and killed,’ Spencer-Hunter told The Gleaner, which is also Jamaican daily newspaper.