Richard Schroeter
A retired Pennsylvania state trooper last week pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from his on-duty fatal shooting of fellow trooper and Northeast native David Kedra during a firearms training session last Sept. 30.
Former Cpl. Richard Schroeter pleaded on May 19 to five counts of reckless endangerment, one for each of five other troopers who were sitting at a classroom table in the Public Safety Training Campus in Plymouth Township, near Conshohocken, when Schroeter’s gun discharged, wounding Kedra in the abdomen. Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Garrett D. Page will preside over an Aug. 28 sentencing hearing. Schroeter, 43, faces up to five to 10 years in prison, but is not subject to mandatory prison time.
Montgomery County authorities charged Schroeter in the case in February at the recommendation of an investigating grand jury. District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman had instructed jurors to consider more serious charges including homicide and involuntary manslaughter, but the jury found that the slaying was essentially an accident.
Schroeter was a firearms instructor at the facility, where Kedra and the four other victims were training on a new firearm. At the time of the shooting, Schroeter was “discussing the trigger mechanics” of a weapon when he fired the live round that struck Kedra, according to a grand jury report.
“Schroeter breached routine, yet critical safety protocol by failing to visually and physically check to ensure that his weapon was unloaded, failing to obtain confirmation from another that his firearm was not loaded and failing to point his weapon away from the direction of everyone present,” the grand jury found.
Vetri’s office, in a printed statement, addressed the decision not to press felony charges, stating that jurors “found insufficient evidence that Schroeter consciously disregarded human life, and, therefore, could not establish probable cause that he committed involuntary manslaughter.”
Kedra, 26, was taken to Temple University Hospital after the shooting. He died there that night. The Burholme native was a graduate of Presentation BVM grade school, Roman Catholic High School (Class of 2006) and Temple University. He grew up on the 7200 block of Claridge St. and had recently bought a home in East Coventry Township, Chester County, with his fiance, Suzanne Carrieri. He had served two years with the Pennsylvania State Police.
Schroeter retired from the state police after the shooting. The prosecutor’s office has described him as “an experienced officer and highly trained firearms instructor.” Schroeter’s attorney described him after last week’s court hearing as “a decorated trooper.” ••
