Two women told a judge Thursday that a state trooper responding to a daylight burglary call in Washington County seven years ago appeared to be out of control as he assumed a sniper position, trained his AR-15 assault rifle on them and repeatedly shouted expletives.

But it is unclear whether a jury will ever hear the women describe the harrowing encounter with Trooper Chad Weaver, who nine days later killed Anthony Gallo while responding to a 911 call at a Canton Township trailer park.

Gallo’s father sued Weaver in federal court for using excessive force against his son on Oct. 1, 2017. He also sued four of Weaver’s bosses for supervisory liability.

U.S. District Judge Robert Colville had already decided that the women’s testimony could not be used against Weaver.

He had been prepared to allow it into evidence against the supervisors, but legal maneuvering Thursday by the troopers’ lawyers from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office threw that into doubt.

As a result, Colville dismissed the jury early and listened to the women’s stories for himself as he considers his decision.

Jennifer Kostik Johnson and Chelsea Karichko said that on Sept. 21, 2017, they had gone that afternoon to a storage building used by their employer, Novacare, to pick up a desk and other items for their office in Uniontown.

They initially said that the combination lock wouldn’t open for them, and after about five minutes and a phone call to their boss, they realized the numbers for the code had been transposed.

The women then went into the storage unit and were on their third trip back to their truck, carrying a desk, when they heard a man yell, “‘Freeze, put your hands up. Come out where I can see you,” Karichko said.

Weaver, who both woman said didn’t identify himself, was posted behind a truck in a sniper position with his AR-15 pointed at them, “telling us to put the [expletive] desk down and get on the [expletive] ground,” Johnson said.

She said she tried to explain to him who they were and why they were there.

“He told me to shut the [expletive] up and to get face down on the ground,” Johnson said.

Each time they tried to speak to him, they testified, they were told the same thing.

When Johnson continued to try to explain, Karichko got her attention, “‘Shut up, Jennifer. I think he’s going to shoot us.’”

They put the desk down and lay face down in the gravel.

“I just thought about my kids and possibly never seeing them again,” Karichko recounted.

Weaver held them there, still at gunpoint, they said, for several minutes until other troopers arrived.

Then, the women said, Weaver made them get on their knees and handcuffed them behind their backs before placing them in separate patrol cars.

After several minutes, Johnson was permitted to call her boss, who called the owner of the building, and the situation was cleared up.

“Almost everyone came up to apologize except Chad Weaver,” Karichko said. “He just asked me if we were cool, after pointing a gun at me, having me handcuffed and throwing me in the back of a police car.

“I said, ‘No.’”

Both women called the state police afterward to complain.

Johnson said she spoke with Weaver’s supervisor, Sgt. Jeremy Barni.

“I didn’t want anyone to lose their job, but I felt like he probably should be behind a desk,” Johnson said.

She told the sergeant that the state police should deal with Weaver “before he hurts somebody.”

Barni told her, Johnson testified, that Weaver was justified in his response to the burglary call. He testified to the same thing earlier Thursday, although he said he did counsel Weaver on his foul language.

Barni suggested she file an online complaint with the state police, which she did.

“I told them this officer was over the top, and he was going to kill someone,” Johnson said.

After she learned that Weaver killed Gallo, she sent another email to the department.

“When you see things like that, you have to protect the public,” she said.

Karichko called and spoke to Weaver’s supervisor, as well.

“We felt Mr. Weaver was a threat to other people — that he shouldn’t be out on the front lines. He shouldn’t be a responding officer,” she said. “I thought maybe they would investigate, maybe get him some help, look into mental health crisis stuff.”

Karichko thought it would be handled, but then Gallo was killed nine days later.

“When we found out Chad Weaver was involved, sadly, we weren’t surprised,” she said. “I just wish things would have changed after what happened to us because then, maybe, things would have been different down the line for Mr. Gallo.”

Earlier this week, Geary told the jury that Weaver had been the subject of 36 excessive force complaints in his 10-year state police career and that he’d been admitted seven times into a special state police program for anger and mental health issues seven times.

Colville had been planning to allow Weaver’s background into evidence against the supervisors along with the women’s testimony, but he is reconsidering that as well.

Gallo was killed when Weaver and another trooper, Matthew Shaffer, responded to a 911 call at a trailer park on Mark Avenue.

Gallo’s family said he was having a mental health crisis. He had been going in and out of trailers with a knife when the troopers arrived.

Gallo ran inside one trailer and the troopers followed. Weaver shot him at close quarters.

Weaver testified earlier in the week that he opened fire in self-defense because Gallo threatened him with the knife.

Shaffer, however, told jurors that he never saw Gallo make any movement toward Weaver.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---