TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WBEN) - A grand jury has charged a Tonawanda man with a dozen crimes after he allegedly murdered a man and shot at multiple City of Tonawanda police officers who were investigating the original crime in May.
Matthew Gerwitz was arraigned Wednesday in Erie County court. He was charged with six counts of attempted murder of police officers, five counts of illegal weapons possession, and one count of murder.
Gerwitz is accused of killing Joseph Morasco outside of the former's Morgan Street home on May 26.
The situation was re-escalated after Morasco and his friends returned to the area later to confront Gerwitz. Gerwitz pulled out a handgun and shot Morasco. Morasco later died at the hospital.
As City of Tonawanda Police Officers investigated the scene for two hours, law enforcement said Gerwitz returned to his home and raised the suspicion of the officers.
"The defendant now engages in a conversation, allegedly, with some City of Tonawanda police officers," Flynn explained. "He then proceeds to go up into his apartment and he comes back around the corner from inside the apartment and is carrying stuff in his hands. The City of Tonawanda police officers are on the porch looking into the apartment. They see him with a rifle and a box."
The box was a pelican box, used for carrying weapons in. Flynn said Gerwitz put the box down and began firing on officers.
Officers returned fire but did not strike Gerwitz. Gerwitz fled in a car, firing at officers in the process, and was chased by officers down Morgan. Flynn said that another squad car was shot at during the chase.
The chase ended when Gerwitz's car was pushed off the road by one of the squad car. He surrendered after the car crash.
"It was a miracle that others did not get hurt and get killed," Flynn said.
At the time of Gerwitz's initial arraignment, Flynn described Gerwitz as a "gun enthusiast" who liked to make his own guns. Flynn said the five gun charges include the illegal rifle used to shoot at officers. He said the rifle was an illegal assault weapon because of the magazines used for it. After officers raided the house, they discovered three handmade pistols that were illegal. He also illegally owned the pistol used to kill Morasco.
"It's beyond words," Flynn said of the Morasco's killing. "It's unclear right now whether these two knew each other. But it's really irrelevant, quite frankly. Mr. Morasco just happened to stop out in front of the defendant's home playing this Pokemon Go game. This is what led to a 12-count indictment where Mr. Gerwitz is now facing a maximum of 175 years in jail because every incident, every one of the six attempted murder charges against the six officers...can be tacked on consecutively."
The officer that rammed into Gerwitz' car suffered a broken wrist as a result of the incident.