Torraize Armstrong : “Gun Linked to Officer Shooting and Drive-By”

​The firearm wielded by Torraize Armstrong during a fatal encounter with law enforcement on Saturday has been connected to a earlier drive-by shooting incident on the same day. Armstrong, aged 40, was fatally shot after injuring Chester Police Detective Steve Byrne. Byrne, who survived the altercation, has been hailed as a hero by Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer for his bravery in stopping a dangerous individual.

Authorities have revealed that the gun used to wound a police detective following a pursuit in southeastern Pennsylvania on Saturday had been utilized in a previous drive-by shooting earlier that day.

Delaware County prosecutors and Chester police disclosed on Monday that the firearm belonged to Torraize Armstrong, who was shot and killed on Saturday afternoon following an exchange of gunfire with wounded Chester Police Detective Steve Byrne and three other officers.

Byrne, who sustained a single gunshot during the incident, was hospitalized but has since been discharged and is recovering at home with his family, according to officials. District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer commended Byrne for his actions, stating that he “has become a hero for all of the people in the city of Chester by halting a very dangerous individual.”

PENNSYLVANIA AUTHORITIES IDENTIFY POLICE OFFICER WOUNDED IN FATAL GUNFIRE EXCHANGE

Stollsteimer highlighted that Byrne was the third police officer to be injured by gunfire in the county within a span of about a week and a half.

Officials confirmed that Armstrong was identified as a suspect in a drive-by shooting that occurred at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday in Chester, as the gunfire originated from a black car registered to Armstrong. The car was pursued from Chester into Upland and back into Chester, where it suffered a tire blowout and Armstrong exited the vehicle, officials stated.

Armstrong immediately opened fire upon exiting the vehicle, using a 9mm semi-automatic weapon to shoot at officers, resulting in Byrne sustaining injuries, as mentioned by Stollsteimer. Byrne and two Upland officers, along with a Chester Township officer, returned fire.

Armstrong, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds, passed away on Saturday evening at Crozer-Chester Medical Center. An initial ballistics examination confirmed that Armstrong’s gun was the same weapon used in the earlier drive-by shooting, according to Stollsteimer.

“The officers returned fire both to protect their lives – Detective Byrne was actually shot by him – but also to safeguard the community,” Stollsteimer stated.

Steven Gretsky, Commissioner of Chester Police, revealed that Byrne has been with the department for 16 years and is one of its senior detectives. Gretsky noted that Byrne was off duty on Saturday but was called in as the lead investigator for the drive-by shooting case.

Stollsteimer’s office is overseeing the investigation and emphasized that while further work is required, “all of the officers who discharged their weapons were entirely justified in their actions.”

On February 7, two police officers in another region of the county were wounded by gunfire at a residence in East Lansdowne that subsequently caught fire, with six sets of human remains discovered in the aftermath. Stollsteimer attributed the violence to what he described as “a culture of affinity for weapons” that is causing harm to communities.

“We have too many individuals with firearms who should not possess such weapons,” he remarked, pointing out that on the day of the East Lansdowne incident, authorities were announcing first-degree murder charges against a 15-year-old boy in connection with the killing of another 15-year-old boy using a “ghost gun,” a privately-made firearm lacking serial numbers and difficult to trace.

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“There is no justification for a 15-year-old to acquire an unlicensed weapon designed solely for criminal activities without any traceable serial number,” he added.