Chesco D.A.: Courthouse shooting saved lives

The shooting of a knife-wielding attacker by a deputy sheriff at the Chester County courthouse this week was justified, the district attorney ruled Thursday, declaring the assault to be an unprovoked attack by an obviously troubled man and closing the case without finding a motive.

In releasing new details, District Attorney Thomas Hogan also disclosed that the assailant, Curtis W. Smith, had not stabbed a deputy before he was shot during the lunch-hour incident in West Chester, as the prosecutor first reported.

Hogan said investigators determined that Smith, 34, lunged at Deputy Sheriff Kevin Brough with a folding knife, but the approximately three-inch blade did not penetrate the deputy's vest. Brough's hand was injured by one of three bullets his fellow officer fired at Smith, Hogan said.

Still, he said, the shooting was in line with law enforcement training - and stopped a potential mass-casualty attack.

"All of the training that we do to address active threats paid dividends," Hogan said.

Detectives did not find a motive for the attack except to say that Smith, a Coatesville man who had had legal troubles, including a March arrest for climbing a White House wall, likely had mental-health problems and was still grieving the 2012 murder of his father by his brother. Hogan said a theory by one of Walton's cousins that Smith was attempting "suicide by cop" makes sense.

Just before noon Tuesday, Smith ran into the Chester County Justice Center, yelled, "Let's do this s-!", and attacked Brough, 22.

Another deputy fired three shots, striking Smith twice in the torso and Brough in the hand, investigators concluded. The District Attorney's Office did not identify the other deputy, citing its policy to withhold a shooter's names if the shooting is deemed justifiable.

Smith was conscious when taken from the scene, but gave officials in the ambulance only his name, Hogan said. He died from his wounds at Paoli Hospital. Chester County Hospital was closer, but the severity of his wounds required him to be taken to Paoli's trauma center, officials said.

Brough was released from the hospital Thursday and is in good spirits, said Sheriff Carolyn Bunny Welsh.

Hogan said the initial account that Smith had slashed the deputy came from officers at the scene. "Nobody really knew it was from the [gunshot] rounds until after the surgeons had operated" on Brough, the prosecutor said, taking responsibility for "any mistake" in the prior account.

It was less than three seconds from Smith's walking in the door to being shot down. Hogan said that meant the deputy had no choice but to shoot, and the fact that no one else was injured was "just a matter of sheer chance in this case, and a ballistic vest."

Sonni Walton, Smith's cousin, said she understood the need to subdue him, but wished the officer had not used deadly force. "I wish they found another way to incapacitate him, and find a way to figure out what was on his mind," she said Thursday.

Hogan said investigators were unable to find any evidence to indicate Smith's motive. Those who knew him said his actions did not match the man they knew. Walton said she believes Smith may have hoped to die on Tuesday, but he "wasn't a monster."

The prosecutor based the mental-health assertions partially on Smith's reported behavior after his White House arrest - when, Hogan said, he had told Secret Service agents about his father's murder. Although federal prosecutors had agreed to defer any prosecution for that incident, Hogan called it a "triggering event."

Smith had was separated from his wife, who had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against him, the prosecutor said. And he was scheduled to appear in court on burglary and assault charges from May. A conviction on any charges might have exposed him to new prosecution in the White House trespassing, his lawyer in that case said this week.

But on the morning of the attack, Smith had been with family members and acting normally, Hogan said. He left the house quickly for an unknown reason.

Hogan said the deputy sheriffs fulfilled their duty in stopping Smith, but added: "There is no such thing as a 'good' shooting, because a man has lost his life."