Columbia Psychologist Questions Police Shooting of Son

Dr. Joyce Hamilton Berry’s son, Daryl Berry, was shot three times and killed by a Pennsylvania state trooper on a rural stretch of the Pennsylvania turnpike on March 6.

The police say Daryl Berry, 45, had gotten into an accident and was arguing with another driver when the trooper arrived, according to reports in Pennsylvania newspapers.

Berry allegedly set his two Rottweiler dogs after the trooper. As the trooper fought off the dogs, Berry attacked the officer, striking him in the face with a metal flashlight, according to police. The trooper then shot Berry three times and killed him. The dogs were not injured. The officer was released from the hospital the same night.

But Daryl’s mother, who lives on Windharp Way in Columbia and was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Kentucky with a Ph.D., told Patch in an interview she was left with a number of questions after her son’s death.

She said the Pennsylvania State Police have not provided her with information she requested, including the police report.

She said police told her the trooper’s dashboard video camera was malfunctioning when the shooting occurred. She said she was told it would not have recorded the incident anyway because it took place behind the officer’s car. She said the name of the officer who shot her son has been withheld.

“I want to know what happened to my son,” said Dr. Berry, who has raised three children while maintaining a clinical psychology practice. “I want to know the circumstances. I want to know the truth.”

At the time of his death, Daryl was driving to his home in Cincinnati, where he owned a landscaping and handyman business. Daryl grew up in Columbia and later attended Tuskegee University. He received a degree in electrical engineering. He was not married and had no children.

Dr. Berry said her son didn’t have a criminal record and she couldn’t remember him ever being in a fight. She said her son didn’t train his dogs to be aggressive and described one of them as being like Marmaduke, the genial Great Dane from the comic strip.

“Daryl was very unassuming,” said Dr. Berry, “He thought all people were basically good, not malicious.”

Patch last week filed public information requests for police reports related to Berry’s death, as well as requests for 911 dispatches and witness statements. Police said Thursday it would take an extra 30 days to fill the request.

Calls to Pennsylvania state police public information officers were not returned.

Charles Saunders, a lawyer who is assisting Dr. Berry, said he talked to the trooper leading the state police’s investigation into the shooting but has not received additional information.

Dr. Berry is also working with a private investigator in Pennsylvania.

“I’m going to have to subpoena" to get more information, she said. “What I do when I get the information, I don’t know.”

She said pursuing the case could take its toll.

“You have to keep reliving it,” she said. “Working with patients, I know that when it comes time for trial they regress to where they initially were when they started grieving. But, I want to know why he was murdered.

“Daryl was not a violent person, I don’t believe he attacked the policeman. I think there are a lot of loose ends,” she said.

At her home this week, Dr. Berry’s eyes glimmered as a friend described memories from Daryl’s childhood. Nearby, a framed collage containing pictures of Daryl was leaning against a wall. In one, he’s smiling with his arms slung around his two dogs.