Glenn “Bubba” Pysher’s mother is speaking out after her unarmed son was fatally shot by Pennsylvania police while trying to enter the wrong house following a night of drinking.
Erin Pysher, the mother of the 22-year-old New Jersey college athlete, told WPVI that her son had been out celebrating a friend’s birthday at a local bar in Upper Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night when the group decided to move the party to the friend’s house. Pysher chose to walk there but became disoriented after drinking.
“He ended up at the wrong house after having a few drinks. He didn’t know that, so he was knocking on the door saying, ‘Hey, let me in.’ Thinking it was his friend’s house, but it wasn’t,” she told the outlet.
Just before 12:30 a.m., local police responded to a 911 call about a possible attempted break-in at the residence where Pysher had arrived. The couple inside the home had been startled and called for help, according to reports. Officers found Pysher in the rear of the residence, where an “encounter ensued” that ended with police fatally shooting him, the Montgomery District Attorney’s Office said.
The timeline was devastatingly brief, his mother emphasized. “12:32, he was on the phone with his friends. By 12:35, I believe he’s already shot. So, within a few minutes, the cop pulled up and shot him. He was unarmed. He had a cell phone and a book bag,” Erin Pysher told WPVI.
Pysher was set to begin classes at Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey on Monday, his family said. He had recently transferred to the school and was expected to play on their baseball team. Off the field, his mother described him as a “lovable goofball” who brought light into their home.
“He will walk in the back door and say his favorite thing, ‘Hey mom, your favorite kid is home.’ He was just happy-go-lucky. Didn’t have a care in the world, and I’m going to miss that,” she said.
A family friend identified only as Kia spoke to Fox 29 about the loss. “To see someone that has so much potential because he was so excited about going back to school, lose their life, it hurts,” she said. “He was an amazing soul, young man, never got in any trouble, well-respected.”
Kia added that the family is seeking answers about how the encounter escalated so quickly. “What happened? Could it have been de-escalated? We don’t know, but we want to figure that out,” she said.
The reason officers opened fire remains unclear. The deadly shooting was captured on surveillance cameras in the backyard of the property, and that footage is now part of the ongoing investigation. The Montgomery County Detective’s Bureau is handling the probe, according to the district attorney’s office.