Police Officer Charged In 2018 Fatal Shooting Of Reading Man

READING (CBS) – A Reading police officer who shot and killed a man at the conclusion of a 2018 standoff was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday. Erik Drauschke is charged with manslaughter in the death of 43-year-old Alan Greenough.

Drauschke was among the officers who responded to a report of a domestic assault at an apartment above a Main Street gas station on February 3. Greenough had allegedly assaulted two people at the apartment, and then locked himself inside.

"Mr. Greenough was allegedly agitated and, at one point, had an approximately three foot-long broken table leg in his hands as he yelled from a window to the police," according to a statement by the Middlesex District Attorney's office.

According to investigators, Greenough eventually climbed out a window and got into a parked car. Officer Erik Drauschke found the suspect in that car and, without waiting for backup, ordered him to get out.

That's when investigators say the suspect got out of the car, with both hands inside his sweatshirt pocket, and moved toward the officer yelling "shoot me."

Officer Drauschke "began to back up, then fired twice, striking Mr. Greenough in the chest," according to the grand jury findings.

Greenough, it turned out, was unarmed.

Reading police had been at the same apartment the night before, for a similar report involving Greenough. On that night, he fled before officers arrived.

Officer Erik Drauschke has been on paid leave since the shooting. That was changed to unpaid leave on Wednesday. He will be arraigned on manslaughter charges at a later date.