A South Whitehall Township police officer is being charged in the fatal shooting of a man near Dorney Park on July 28.

District Attorney Jim Martin announced Tuesday afternoon that Officer Jonathan R. Roselle is being charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Joseph Santos, 44, of Hasbrouck Heightd, New Jersey.

According to Martin, the officer had been controlling/monitoring traffic at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Hamilton Boulevard, about one and a half blocks south of this incident.

The officer had his marked vehicle parked on the median dividing the north and southbound lanes of Hamilton Boulevard. A woman operating a vehicle pulled

alongside his passenger side door and reported that a man had approached and tried to enter her vehicle while she was driving along Hamilton Boulevard north of the officer’s

Iocation.

The officer made a U-turn and proceeded north until he encountered a man on the east berm of Hamilton Boulevard. The man was bleeding. He banged on the

officer’s driver’s side window; mounted the hood of the police vehicle and banged on the windshield; and, when he removed himself from the hood of the vehicle, went to the passenger side, and banged on that window.

The officer radioed Lehigh County Comm. Center to report the incident in progress and with his duty weapon unholstered and while pointing it at the man,

issued repeated verbal commands to him from within the vehicle to get away from his vehicle, or to get off his vehicle. He had also indicated to the Comm Center that the man might have mental issues and that he needed backup and would await their arrival. The man walked away from the passenger side ofthe officer’s vehicle in a southbound direction, toward Lincoln Avenue, on the east berm. He walked a short distance south (estimated by the officer at less than 100’), and then reversed course and walked back toward the marked vehicle. By that time the officer had gotten out of the vehicle and was issuing repeated verbal commands to the man to “get down on the ground.” The man did not comply but continued to walk toward the officer. As the man drew nearer, the officer discharged his duty weapon five

times.

The man was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital -Cedar Crest, where he was pronounced dead.

Roselle will be preliminary arraigned from Central Booking.

“A Magisterial District Judge is not permitted to set bail where the charge is Voluntary Manslaughter. However, the Commonwealth will not object to reasonable ROR bail, inasmuch as Officer Roselle is not considered to be a flight risk. He will be supervised by Pretrial Services, and a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas will set bail and any appropriate conditions,” Martin said.

Roselle graduated from the Allentown Police Academy on Dec. 17, 2017 . He thereafter underwent thirteen weeks of field training in accordance

with South Whitehall Township Police Department protocols. However, he has

been on patrol by himself for less than five months.