Osaze Osagie

Osaze Osagie, 29, who had schizophrenia and Asperger's syndrome, was shot and killed by a State College, Pennsylvania police officer on March 20, 2019, at his apartment while three officers attempted to serve a mental health warrant his own father had requested. Sylvester Osagie, worried about his son's deteriorating condition, had asked police for an involuntary commitment warrant after his son sent a text threatening self-harm. When officers arrived, Osagie reportedly ran at them holding a steak knife; one officer fired three shots, striking him once in the shoulder and twice in the back as he turned. It was the first fatal police shooting in the department's 103-year history. Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna announced in May 2019, after a six-week investigation, that the officer would face no charges, finding the shooting justified. A federal judge dismissed the family's civil lawsuit in 2023. No one has ever been charged in Osagie's death.

State College, PA · Centre County

• 2019: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• Sylvester Osagie's request for a mental health warrant, the officers' response, and the shooting, per the Pennsylvania State Police investigative report and the Centre County District Attorney's public findings.
• All three responding officers had completed 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team training, described by the borough as the "gold standard" for police response to mental health situations; one officer was additionally trained by the FBI as a crisis negotiator.
• The officers were given a copy of Osagie's text message threatening self-harm before responding, but the DA's report noted no other information about his prior legal or health history was made available to them, and they did not develop a specific joint plan before engaging him.
• District Attorney Bernie Cantorna announced on May 8, 2019 that the shooting was legally justified and that the officer, whose identity was never publicly released per standard department and state police practice for uncharged shootings, acted in defense of himself and a fellow officer.
• U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew Brann dismissed the family's federal lawsuit in November 2023 on summary judgment, ruling the officers, who were not mental health professionals, could not be held liable "for failing to be something they are not, and a death they did not cause."
• The shooting prompted the formation of a local mental health task force, which issued 21 recommendations in November 2020; as of four years after Osagie's death, only seven had been implemented, and advocates said removing firearms from officers serving mental health warrants was never seriously considered.

• Whether Osagie's advance with the knife presented the imminent threat that justified deadly force, given he was fatally struck twice in the back — suggesting he may have been turning away at the moment of at least some shots — was disputed by community members reviewing the same investigative findings and was never resolved at any criminal trial.
• Why officers with specialized crisis intervention and hostage-negotiation training did not develop a specific de-escalation plan before engaging Osagie has not been fully explained beyond the DA's report noting that gap occurred.
• Whether Pennsylvania's mental health warrant process, which the DA himself said should change, has been meaningfully reformed regarding whether armed police officers must be the ones serving such warrants remains disputed by local advocates.

• Spotlight PA — “State College officer killed Osaze Osagie 4 years ago”
• WITF — “DA: No Charges for police shooting in State College”
• StateCollege.com — “Federal Judge Dismisses Osagie Family Lawsuit Against State College, Police Officers”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs