Man shot, killed had history of mental illness
John Ebberts had a mental illness, but was friendly and nice to others when he was taking his medication, his spouse and neighbors said Tuesday.
Ebberts, 35, of Butler, stopped taking the medication, several people indicated, days before Tuesday, when a city police officer was dispatched at about 7 a.m. to Ebberts' home on West Jefferson Street because he was acting irrationally.
After the officer encountered Ebberts, a struggle began. Ebberts stabbed the officer multiple times as they fought on the ground, but the officer managed to get to his knees with a knife stuck in his abdomen and fired, killing Ebberts, witnesses said.
There was “no reason for it to go down that way,” said Joe Torres, who had been married to Ebberts for three years. “He was mentally ill. Everybody knew it.”
Torres said Ebberts stopped taking his medication a couple days earlier “because he's John.”
Torres wears a neck chain with a pendant bearing an etched image of him and Ebberts because “that's how much I love him.” His wallet has the same image engraved in the leather.
The incident is being investigated by state police. Neither the police nor city officials identified the officer, but said he is 27 years old. The officer was flown to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he underwent surgery.
The officer was dispatched to the 300-block of the two-lane, one-way street for a report of “an erratic male jumping in and out of traffic.”
Lazaros Sotos, who lives in the 16-unit apartment building that Ebberts and Torres called home, said he arrived at the building and parked along the street moments before the incident unfolded.
He said Ebberts walked past him speaking nonsensically before the officer arrived.
“I saw him pull a knife,” John W. O'Donnell Sr., who also lives in the apartment building, said about Ebberts.
At one point during the confrontation, Sotos and O'Donnell said they saw blood running down the side of the officer's head around his ear.
“We saw the knife on him,” Sotos said, about Ebberts.
The officer and Ebberts were struggling on the ground when Ebberts stabbed him, said Sotos and O'Donnell.
Sotos said he saw a knife on the ground next to the two men and tried to help the officer.
“I tried to kick one knife away, but he pulled another,” Soto said.
O'Donnell said the officer managed to get on his knees with a knife in his abdomen and shot three times at Ebberts.
“I went to try to help. I saw the knife in the cop's belly,” Soto said.
He said Ebberts, who worked in a nearby convenience store and was a quiet person, had been acting strangely the past few days. He said he never thought Ebberts would be involved in an incident like the one he witnessed.
