Ten days after a corporal’s own body camera recorded him firing on a college baseball player who stood with his hands up, the officer is gone from the force — not fired, but retired, on his own paperwork.
Upper Pottsgrove Township officials confirm Cpl. Sean Farrell, 58, was suspended without pay on September 1 and voluntarily retired the next day, effective immediately. His lawyer confirmed the resignation. The timeline is the story: charged August 31 in the shooting of 22-year-old Glen “Bubba” Pysher IV, suspended the following morning, retired the morning after that.
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What the body camera shows
Pysher, a catcher and Pottsgrove High School class of 2023 who was set to start at Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey this semester, went to the wrong house in his own hometown after a night out on August 23. According to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, Farrell’s own body-worn camera shows Pysher with his hands raised — empty hands, no weapon — standing 17 to 20 feet away, when Farrell fired twice, cutting off his own command mid-sentence.
Farrell told investigators Pysher was charging at him. The recording shows otherwise, prosecutors say. On his belt that night: a Taser and a baton. Both went unused.
He is charged with voluntary manslaughter. Bail was set at $75,000 with a full surrender of weapons.
Everyone called him Bubba. He caught behind the plate from childhood through two seasons at Northampton Community College. His new team never got to suit him up.
The exit
The township’s answer — suspension one day, retirement the next — ends Farrell’s employment but not his case. Voluntary retirement is not a termination, and no official has said what it means for his pension or benefits. What it does mean: Upper Pottsgrove’s police department no longer employs an officer facing a manslaughter count, eleven days after the incident that put the charge on the table.
What happens next
Farrell’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 10 in Montgomery County court. The charge is an allegation; he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. This post will be updated as the case develops: the hearing outcome, any grand jury action, and the resolution of the shooting investigation.
An officer can lose the badge in a day when he resigns. The question a jury will answer is what he carried that night on Cassel Road — and whether eighteen seconds of video told the truth his paperwork didn’t.
Sources
NBC10 Philadelphia · 6abc WPVI · The Reporter (Times Herald) · The Morning Call · NJ.com
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