Poplawski Trial: Gunfight Could Have Gone On Longer

A Pittsburgh Police detective testified Wednesday about guns, spent casings, ammunition and other evidence found in accused gunman Richard Poplawski's house after the shootout in which three officers died, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  

Investigators retrieved so much evidence after the gun battle in Stanton Heights, Detective Blaise Kraeer said, that they ran out of placards to mark each piece and had to substitute chalk, the Post-Gazette reported. Kraeer, who is in the mobile crime unit, testified during the third day of Poplawski's trial on charges that he killed three police officers and injured two others after ambushing them on April 4, 2009.

Jurors saw the bloody cap worn by slain Officer Paul Sciullo II, as well as the concrete slab removed from the sidewalk where Officer Stephen Mayhle died and the bullet gouges that suggested Mayhle was shot from above, according to KDKA-TV and the Tribune-Review. 

When Poplawski surrendered after being wounded himself, he still had more than 900 unused rounds of ammunition for his assault rifle in the house, according to KDKA and the Tribune-Review.

The Allegheny County District Attorney's office is seeking the death penalty for Poplawski in the deaths of Officers Sciullo, Mayhle and Eric G. Kelly. The trial resumes Thursday before Allegheny County Common Please Judge Jeffrey A. Manning.