Pitcairn mayor praises officers’ quick actions in shooting on Saturday

PITCAIRN, Pa. — The mayor of Pitcairn, Betsy Stevick, is praising her officers for their hard work after a deadly shooting in town on Saturday.

Stevick tells Channel 11 that officers from 10 neighboring communities rushed to town to help search for the suspected shooter after Donte Broadus was killed just after 1 p.m. Saturday.

Police arrested Garrett Cogdell. Investigators say Cogdell agreed to go to police headquarters and confessed to the shooting. Cogdell told police Broadus threatened to come to his residence and kill him. He said he saw Broadus’ car speeding up his street on Saturday. He said as it neared, someone began shooting at him out the window. He ran, grabbed a gun from his garage and fired back.

According to court documents, the Pitcairn police chief was the first person to respond to the scene along 3rd Street at around 1 p.m. He found a Kia Forte had crashed and rolled onto its roof with people inside.

Stevick says officers pulled the unnamed woman from the vehicle and applied tourniquets to her wounds.

“These are officers who give their heart and soul every day,” Stevick said.

She said while those officers worked to stop the woman’s bleeding, other officers set off to find the shooter, catching him in less than 22 minutes.

“They set up four perimeters in this period of time. They were able to catch the suspect. They did a wonderful job; it was remarkable.”

Police say the woman had been shot five times in her legs.

Broadus was also found in the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said he had been shot multiple times on his right side.

Cogdell is being held without bail on illegal firearms charges. The judge called him a flight risk and a danger to the public. No homicide charges have been filed.

Man killed, woman injured in vehicle rollover crash, shooting in Pitcairn

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