BERWICK -- Two days after a Berwick police officer shot a man holding a knife, the Columbia County district attorney concluded that the incident was justified.
The district attorney said the officer is Reagan Rafferty, who has been on the force for about five years.
The D.A. adds that Officer Rafferty was trying to save the life of someone else when he shot and critically wounded Edwin Ramos-Ramirez at a home in the borough.
Ramos-Ramirez, 21, is in critical condition at Geisinger Medical Center near Danville after he was shot late Saturday night in front of a house on Spring Garden Avenue.
State police and the Columbia County district attorney have ruled that the shooting was justified.
The D.A. said police were responding to calls of Ramos-Ramirez fighting with another man. That man was a former boyfriend of Ramos-Ramirez's live-in girlfriend.
Investigators said Ramos-Ramirez had a knife and was threatening the other man. That's when Officer Rafferty arrived and repeatedly told Ramos-Ramirez to drop his knife.
The D.A. said Ramos-Ramirez ignored the officer's demands and charged across the porch of this home and onto the lawn. Before he could get any closer to the other man, Rafferty shot Ramos-Ramirez in the shoulder.
Ramos-Ramirez will be charged with attempted homicide and aggravated assault as soon as he is in stable condition, the D.A. said.
