![]() ![]() Some months after Spath had been cleared, he decided to retire from law enforcement. Spath was ultimately acquitted on charges of reckless manslaughter in the shooting. Protest marches with many African Americans believing that Pannell had been killed in cold blood, while there were white residents insisting that Spath may have been justified in his actions. The community was divided by the killing of Phillip Pannell. No evidence was ever introduced that race played a role in the shooting. This evidence corroborated the stories of witnesses at the scene. The second autopsy conducted by the State Medical Examiner proved conclusively that Phillip Pannells hands were raised at the moment that he was shot in the back. The Attorney General also indicated that Bergen Medical Examiner admitted the mistakes he had made in the autopsy process. The New Jersey Attorney General, in a harsh rebuke of the autopsy called it "tainted" and indicated that it was so flawed that another autopsy had to be done which would introduce a correct understanding of where his hands were when he was shot in the back. The original autopsy conducted by the Bergen Medical Examiner indicated that Phillip Pannell was shot in the back with his hands down, possibly reaching for the gun and corroborating the story of the two officers on the scene. The weapon had once been a starter's pistol that had been modified into a fully operable gun. 22 caliber pistol was recovered from the jacket pocket of Pannell. Many witnesses said Pannell was unarmed and had been shot in the back. ![]() Spath said he thought Pannell had a gun and was turning to shoot him. After an initial confrontation near the Bryant School and a subsequent chase, Pannell was shot and killed by Spath, a white Teaneck police officer. On the evening of April 10, 1990, the Teaneck Police Department responded to a call from a resident complaining about a group of teenagers, one of whom was reported to have a gun. As this de facto racial segregation increased, so did tensions between residents of the Northeast and the predominantly white Teaneck Police Department. The African-American population in the Northeast corner of Teaneck grew substantially in the 1960s, accompanied by white flight triggered by the blockbusting efforts of local real estate agencies.
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