Murder count brings joy to victim's kin

"Hallelujah! Thank God! Thank everybody!" exclaimed William Panas Sr. yesterday morning, after he and his wife, Karen, left the city's Criminal Justice Center, where the ex-cop charged with shooting their son to death had just been ordered to stand trial on murder charges.

"I'm grateful that he's still in jail and he can't kill nobody else. I'm very happy," continued Panas, who began to break down.

"It won't bring our boy back, but it's some sense of justice."

Karen Panas said that for good luck she wore the diamond-studded earrings that their son, William Jr., 21, wore the night off-duty officer Frank Tepper shot him on Elkhart Street in Port Richmond.

"I said, 'Billy, please give us strength today.' And he did," she said, clinging to her husband.

Tepper, who was stripped of his badge Jan. 4 and arrested Feb. 9 in the Nov. 21 slaying, was held on counts of recklessly endangering another person, possession of an instrument of crime and general murder.

Clad in a bright-orange, jail-issued jumpsuit, Tepper, 43, said nothing during his brief preliminary hearing before Municipal Judge David Shuter.

Though the shooting, which followed a street fight near Tepper's home, was witnessed by more than a dozen bystanders, Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron called just one witness to convince Shuter that there was enough evidence to hold Tepper for trial.

Anthony Picklo, 21, a close Panas friend, testified that about 10:40 p.m. Nov. 21, he heard a commotion and left his home to investigate.

Picklo said he saw Panas and an unidentified young man fighting as Tepper stood nearby watching. After the fight broke up, he went to help Panas up, Picklo said, prompting Tepper to point a gun at him and say, "Back the f--- up."

"Billy was like, 'He's not going to shoot anyone.' And when he said that, Mr. Tepper shot him," Picklo said.

"At the point in time that the decedent was shot," Cameron said, " he wasn't doing anything. He was standing there with his hands up near his chest and, in fact, didn't think the defendant would shoot him." He labeled the shooting a first-degree murder.

Defense attorney Fortunato Perri argued that Tepper's actions rose only to having committed voluntary manslaughter, which carries a mandatory minimum five-year sentence.

He said Tepper had been assaulted and had suffered a busted lip before the shooting. When asked if Panas had hit Tepper, Perri said, "We're not sure," before adding that "the evidence will show that individuals associated with Mr. Panas assaulted Mr. Tepper."

Tepper, he said, is being held without bail in protective custody.

Judge Shuter set March 10 as Tepper's next court date.