Video shows police tase bloodied Westmoreland County man who had shot himself, ignored police directives
A Westmoreland County attorney accused of stealing from a woman's estate shot himself before police tased him following a brief standoff on Saturday.
Video shared with KDKA-TV shows the man, covered in blood, walking out of his office and toward police, repeatedly ignoring their directives to get down on the ground.
"They eventually tased them, and he fell, and they handcuffed him," said Katie Busch, who recorded video of what happened from her nearby home. "He was kind of barreling towards them. I mean, that could have ended a different way, you know, not a taser. I think they did what they had to do to get them down on the ground."
The Westmoreland County District Attorney's office confirmed the man, identified as 61-year-old Robert Klingensmith, had shot himself.
"He was bleeding everywhere, like, I mean, it was just pouring down the side of him," she said, describing it as frightening in her quiet neighborhood. "My 10-year-old was trying to look out the window, and I didn't want her to witness something worse off."
An ambulance took the man to a hospital, where the DA's office says doctors attempted to perform life-preserving surgery. Officials don't know how Klingensmith is doing, the DA's office said.
The standoff was at Klingensmith's law office around 5:30 p.m. Police were serving a search warrant.
Klingensmith had been charged with theft and exploiting an older or care-dependent person.
The district attorney's office said Klingensmith was the representative for a woman who died, and that Klingensmith failed to pay money from this woman's estate to her heirs.
Instead, officials say he transferred more than $300,000 from the woman's account to his personal account.
"You should be able to trust [lawyers]," Busch said. "I feel bad for the family."
Klingensmith is in police custody, the DA's office said. His bar license was suspended last month.
