District Attorney Jennifer Schorn ruled that five Bensalem Township officers were justified in the January fatal shooting of an armed felon who led police on a vehicle pursuit before barricading himself inside his vehicle and pointing a firearm at them.
In a letter to Bensalem Township Police Director of Public Safety William McVey, Schorn wrote that based upon her review of the evidence, she “concluded that [the officers] were reasonable in their individual beliefs that each of their lives were placed in clear and present danger by Zachiry Derrek Kerschner at the time that they fatally shot Kerschner.”
“I therefore conclude that [the officers] were justified in discharging their weapons and fatally shooting Zachiry Derrek Kerschner.”
Kerschner, 30, of Lehighton, was fatally shot on Jan. 24, 2025, after a series of events that began with a traffic stop near the intersection of Route 1 and Old Lincoln Highway, leading to a 35-minute vehicle pursuit through five jurisdictions and a two-hour standoff.
During the standoff, Kerschner refused to comply with officers, vowing that he was never going back to jail. Kerschner had a passenger in the vehicle. The investigation revealed that at one point during the standoff, Kerschner pointed a gun at him and ordered him to remain in the car. The passenger was unharmed following the standoff and the fatal shooting of Kerschner.
The standoff ended when Kerschner drew down on police with a loaded gun.
Whenever deadly force is used by law enforcement officers in Bucks County, it is standard procedure for the District Attorney to investigate to determine whether the use of deadly force was justified. Schorn assigned the Bucks County Detectives to investigate immediately after the shooting occurred and relied on their findings and other evidence in reaching her conclusions. The evidence included police reports, crime scene analysis, body worn camera and patrol car recordings. It also included a look back into the offender’s criminal past.
The investigation found that Kerschner had a lengthy criminal history and, for much of his adult life, spent time in and out of both state and county correctional facilities.
Particularly troubling was Kerschner’s most recent arrest in February 2024 for felony gun possession in Philadelphia where he served only three months of a 11 ½ to 23-month sentence. The sentence meant he should have been incarcerated on the day he pulled a gun on Bensalem police.
Furthermore, the sentence imposed was significantly below what the Pennsylvania Sentencing Guidelines recommend for an individual with a prior criminal history who commits a firearms offense graded as a felony in the first degree. The standard recommended sentence would have called for a sentence of at least 5 years in a state correctional facility.
After spending three months in jail following his arrest in Philadelphia, Kerschner entered a negotiated plea with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office on Aug. 14, 2024, and was sentenced to 11 ½ to 23-month sentence but was allowed to be paroled on that same date.
To be eligible for parole, he would have needed to serve an additional 8 ½ months in a correctional facility. In Pennsylvania, paroling an individual before they reach their minimum is an illegally executed sentence.
Had Kerschner served just the minimum amount of that sentence, he would have still been incarcerated on Jan. 24, 2025, and unable to possess two firearms, use illegal substances, drive with a suspended license and travel into Bucks County where he placed the lives of law enforcement and the community in jeopardy.
Equally concerning, on the day of the Bensalem incident, Kerschner was on active supervision with the Philadelphia Department of Adult Probation and Parole, however the investigation found that he was no longer being supervised by a parole officer in the field due to manpower constraints. His sentence did not impose any conditions to address his substance abuse issues, and the electronic monitoring device he was ordered to wear had no GPS capabilities, the investigation found.
“Again, this is concerning because it was by agreement that the sentence imposed upon Kerschner was one that allowed him to be in the community and supervised by an agency that is overtaxed with limited resources,” Schorn wrote.
Kerschner was driving a Ford Fusion 3:50 p.m. on Jan. 24, 2025, when he was stopped by Bensalem Police near the intersection of Route 1 and Old Lincoln Highway for a vehicle code violation. Kerschner was non-compliant and told police that he was on house arrest, was armed and was not going back to jail.
Officers attempted to communicate with Kerschner, get him to exit the vehicle, and de-escalate the situation. After approximately 45 minutes, Kerschner fled from police, and officers gave chase.
Pennsylvania State Police joined the pursuit, and police were able to use a pit maneuver to force the vehicle to stop in the 1200 block of Bristol Pike. Officers surrounded the vehicle and ordered Kerschner and his passenger out. Both refused to comply.
For two hours, officers negotiated with Kerschner to try and resolve the situation peacefully, even having his loved ones call him to persuade him to surrender, but he continued to be non-compliant.
During negotiations, Kerschner repeatedly told police there were guns in the car, and he was not going back to jail.
Due to the lack of cooperation, Bensalem SWAT made the decision to deploy tear gas to get the occupants to exit the vehicle. After a second tear gas canister was deployed, Kerschner pulled a handgun and pointed it directly at officers, who discharged their weapons.
Officers pulled Kerschner from the vehicle and began life-saving measures. The passenger of the vehicle was taken into custody and was unharmed. Kerschner was taken to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The evidence collected at the scene included two firearms. The gun that had been in Kerschner’s hand had a live round jammed in the chamber.
The investigation found that Kerschner had used methamphetamines and other illegal substances on the day of the incident.
In coming to her conclusion, District Attorney Schorn said she weighed the totality of the circumstances as reasonably perceived by the officers at the time they fired their weapons. Schorn wrote that Kerschner placed the five officers in fear of death or serious bodily injury of themselves and their fellow officers. The officers believed that Kerschner intended to kill them, shoot them or seriously harm them when he raised his right hand holding the black semi-automatic handgun and pointed it directly at the SWAT officers and other officers who were on scene near Kerschner.
“Despite the officers repeated directions to comply with police commands, Kerschner created a situation in which (the officers) had no other reasonable choice but to fire their weapons in defense of themselves, and others to neutralize what was a deadly and imminent threat,” Schorn wrote.
All five officers acted within the permissible scope of Bensalem Township Police use-of-force requirements, and the use-of-force best practices guidelines adopted by all Bucks County Police Departments in November 2020, Schorn noted.
“For the foregoing reasons, I therefore conclude that [the officers] were each legally justified in fatally shooting Zachiry Derek Kerschner,” Schorn wrote. “Since [the officers] were justified and therefore unequivocally have no culpability, our investigation is accordingly closed.”
Because none of the officers are being charged, their names are not being released, per District Attorney’s Office protocol.
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