Monday’s fatal shooting of a McKeesport police officer marks two line-of-duty deaths already this year for law enforcement in Western Pennsylvania after more than a five-year gap since an officer was last shot..

The McKeesport officer, Sean Sluganski, was killed while responding to a request to perform a check on a man’s mental health. Authorities said that when officers arrived on Wilson Street, the suspect walked away from them and opened fire when they reached the 1300 block of Grandview Avenue. Another McKeesport officer was shot and wounded. Details about the incident are still unfolding.

The incident comes five weeks to the day after Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire was gunned down.

Police officers in the region who lost their lives in the line of duty over the past 15 years include:

Justin McIntire

Authorities said the Brackenridge police chief, a local native who had led his department for four years, was ambushed Jan. 2 while pursuing Aaron Swan, a convicted felon with an extensive criminal record who was the subject of a daylong manhunt for a probation violation. Swan, 28, shot McIntire, 46. He fled and was later killed by police in Pittsburgh in an exchange of gunfire. A Tarentum police officer involved in the pursuit, Jordan Schrecengost, was shot in the leg.

Dale Provins Jr.

The Jefferson Hills officer, 50, was on patrol in a police SUV on Old Clairton Road on June 13, 2020 when a drunk driver in a pickup truck struck him head-on. Provins, a Desert Storm veteran who spent 15 years with the Jefferson Hills department, died 10 days later. The driver, Zachary W. Foltz, who was drunk at 8:15 a.m. when the crash occurred, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three to six years in prison.

Brian Shaw

Shaw, a rookie officer with the New Kensington Police Department, was shot and killed Nov. 17, 2017, during a traffic stop. The Lower Burrell resident was 25. His killer, Rahmael Holt, was convicted and is on death row. Prosecutors said Holt killed Shaw during a foot chase after the officer tried to pull over the SUV in which he was a passenger.

Michael Stewart III

Stewart, 26, of Unity, a Pennsylvania state trooper, died July 14, 2017 after his police SUV crashed into a garbage truck on Route 711 in Ligonier Township. Stewart, who worked out of the Greensburg barracks, joined the state police in 2014. Stewart’s partner, Travis November, was injured.

Scott Bashioum

A Canonsburg police officer for seven years, Bashioum, 52, was ambushed and fatally shot Nov. 10, 2016, while responding to a domestic dispute around 3:15 a.m. Another officer, James Saieva, was injured. The killer, Michael Cwiklinski, killed his estranged wife, Dalia Sabae, and her unborn child before killing himself. The following year a bridge leading into Canonsburg was renamed in Bashioum’s honor, and in 2018, a local post office was rededicated in his name.

Lloyd Reed Jr.

The part-time St. Clair Township police officer was fatally shot Nov. 28, 2015, when he responded to a domestic violence call in New Florence. Reed, 54, was first on the scene and found suspect Ray Shetler Jr. holding a rifle. Witnesses said Shetler refused to drop the weapon, Reed opened fire and Shetler shot back, striking the officer in an area not protected by his bulletproof vest. Shetler, who was shot in the shoulder, claimed self-defense and argued that he didn’t know Reed was a police officer. A jury acquitted him in 2018 of murder charges.

Eric Eslary

Eslary, a lieutenant and K-9 officer with the Ligonier Township police, was killed May 5, 2015 while on patrol when a drunk driver going the wrong way on Route 30 crashed head-on into his marked SUV across from Idlewild Park just before 2 a.m. Eslary, 40, a 17-year-veteran of the force, was cresting a hill when the crash occurred. His K-9 partner, Blek, survived. Eslary was married with six children. The driver of the van, Clair Fink III, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 12 to 30 years in prison.

Richard Champion

The part-time Perryopolis police officer was killed Dec. 14, 2014, during a high-speed chase in Perry Township, Fayette County. Champion, 35, of Ligonier, was pursuing a speeding vehicle. His police cruiser had its lights and sirens activated when an SUV turned left in front of him on Route 51 leading to a fiery collision.

John David Dryer

A gunman killed the 46-year-old part-time East Washington police officer during a traffic stop for an expired registration sticker on Dec. 18, 2011, on Interstate 70 in South Strabane. When police asked the driver, Eli Franklin Myers III, to step away from the car, he shot Dryer in the thigh and another officer, Robert Caldwell, in the hand. Myers then shot Dryer in the head before driving off. After a 10-hour standoff, police fatally shot the gunman, Eli Franklin Myers III, at his Rostraver home when he emerged armed. Dryer was also a veterinarian. His obituary said he grew up on a farm in Avella, worked throughout the U.S. as a horse veterinarian and was a State Game Commission officer.

Derek Kotecki

On Oct. 12, 2011, a fugitive ambushed the Lower Burrell patrolman in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen on Greensburg Road as the officer approached to arrest him for his alleged role in a shooting 10 days earlier. Kotecki, following up on a tip, walked toward a Jeep in the lot when its occupant, Charles Post, shot the officer twice before killing himself. Kotecki, 40, was a longtime policeman and the department’s K-9 handler.

Paul Richey

A man killed his wife and Richey, a Pennsylvania state trooper, before killing himself in his home in rural Venango County on Jan. 13, 2010, when police responded to a domestic disturbance. Richey, 40, was a 16-year veteran. The incident happened in Cranberry, about 80 miles north of Pittsburgh. Michael J. Smith shot Richey in the torso above his protective vest as he approached a side door.

Michael Crawshaw

The Penn Hills officer was shot in the head and the arm when Ronald Robinson sprayed his police car with 13 rounds from an AK-47-style assault rifle on Dec. 6, 2009. Moments earlier, police said, Robinson gunned down a man inside a nearby house over a $500 drug debt. Crawshaw, 32, was waiting in his car for backup when he was attacked. He had been on the job for two years. Robinson was convicted and is serving life in prison.

Paul Sciullo, Stephen Mayhle and Eric Kelly

The three Pittsburgh police officers were killed April 4, 2009, by Richard Poplawski during a shootout in the city’s Stanton Heights section. Sciullo and Mayhle responded to a 7 a.m. call that morning by Poplawski’s mother asking police to eject her son from the house. Prosecutors said Poplawski killed Sciullo, got into a gun battle with Mayhle, then murdered Kelly, who was off-duty but raced to the scene when he heard a call for help on the police radio. A Dauphin County jury found Poplawski guilty in 2011. He is on death row.

Sam Hicks

A Westmoreland County native, the FBI agent was shot and killed Nov. 19, 2008, when he and a team of officers served a drug warrant in Indiana Township. Hicks, 33, breached the front door of the home belong to Christina Korbe and her husband, Robert – the warrant’s target – and was the first one through. Christina Korbe, standing on the second floor, fired a gun down a dark stairwell, striking Hicks. She claimed that she thought someone was breaking in, and she fired for protection. Korbe pleaded guilty in 2011 to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to federal prison. She was released in June.

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