Richard Poplawski

An administrative execution date for Poplawski was set for March 3, 2017; on February 16, 2017, a judge issued an order to stay the execution until courts rule on Poplawski's petition claiming that his attorneys provided ineffective assistance of counsel. Poplawski will receive another administrative execution date.

The victims were the first Pittsburgh city officers killed in the line of duty in 18 years. The incident was the third-deadliest attack on U.S. law enforcement since the September 11 attacks, following a 2016 mass shooting in Dallas, Texas; and a pair of related shootings two weeks earlier in Oakland, California.

On June 28, 2011, Poplawski was sentenced to death by lethal injection on three counts of murder in the first degree.

On June 28, 2011, Poplawski was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

On April 21, 2010, a spokesman for Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala announced that the D.A.'s Office would seek the death penalty for Poplawski, whose formal arraignment took place on June 1. A county judge ordered police investigators, attorneys, court and jail personnel to not discuss the case with the media.

Poplawski's trial was originally scheduled to start on October 12, 2010, but was delayed until April 25, 2011, due to a defense request for additional time to address the death penalty aspect of the case. The trial began on June 20, 2011. On June 28, 2011 Poplawski was sentenced to death after being found guilty by the jury a few days before. On Saturday, June 25, 2011, the jury delivered a verdict of guilty on three counts of first-degree homicide and all other counts, after deliberating for approximately 4 hours.

On April 4, 2009, a shootout occurred at 1016 Fairfield Street in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, stemming from a mother and her 22-year-old son's argument over a dog urinating in the house. At approximately 7:11 a.m. EDT, 22-year-old Richard Poplawski opened fire on two Pittsburgh Police officers responding to a 9-1-1 call from Poplawski's mother, who was attempting to get the police officers to remove her son from the home. Despite Poplawski's mother telling the 9-1-1 operator that Poplawski had guns, the police officers were not told. Three police officers were ultimately confirmed dead, and another two were seriously injured.

On March 13, 2009, Poplawski wrote on a white supremacist website that "ZOG (Zionist-occupied government) is... One can read the list of significant persons in government and in major corporations and see who is pulling the strings. One can observe the policies and final products and should walk away with little doubt there is Zionist occupation and -- after some further research & critical thinking -- will discover their insidious intentions."

Poplawski was a member of Stormfront, a white supremacist website, where he was a frequent visitor and poster. Poplawski had reportedly posted a picture of his tattoo, a "deliberately Americanized version of the iron eagle" to the website, as well as a link to a YouTube video of Congressman Ron Paul discussing with Fox News host Glenn Beck the rumored existence of FEMA-managed concentration camps. Poplawski last logged into Stormfront at 3:32 a.m. Saturday, only hours before the shootings. For being such huge players in the endgame," he observed in a March 29, 2009, posting to Infowars, "too many 'infowarriors' are surprisingly unfamiliar with the Zionists." Among Poplawski's "last few links from MySpace" were a Myers-Briggs personality test, and a psychotherapy chart.

During the first week of June 2009, the case was officially assigned to Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning. On June 5, Manning ordered the attorneys to exchange discovery materials immediately, and scheduled an August 13 hearing to "address any outstanding discovery issues." Afterward, a date was to be set to hear pretrial motions, followed by a trial date. Although cases are usually assigned to judges at random, an exception is made for cases that could possibly involve the death penalty. Manning was assigned to this case because during his 20 years as a judge, he has heard nearly two dozen cases where the death penalty was a possibility, including the 2001 trial of Richard Baumhammers, who was sentenced to death for murdering five people.

Poplawski moved to Florida in 2006, and rented a room in a woman's house. However, she later evicted him after her German Shepherd disappeared while under Poplawski's care. He later moved in with the woman's neighbor, who said that he spoke lovingly about his grandmother but seemed disappointed in his mother.

On September 14, 2005, Poplawski allegedly assaulted his then-girlfriend outside his home. A month later, Poplawski allegedly violated an order of protection by showing up at the woman's place of work. Poplawski had recently lost his job at a glass factory, and was reportedly upset over the job loss. Neighbors also reported that Poplawski was involved in several arguments with neighbors, including a couple of fistfights, and one incident in which he insulted a black Stanton Heights resident by shouting a racial slur in his face.

Although Pennsylvania has the death penalty on the books, and has hundreds of convicted murderers on death row, the last time the state actually executed anyone was in 1999. Since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1978, only three people have been executed, and all three had waived their appeal rights. Pennsylvania has never executed anyone who has taken full advantage of the appeal process. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, if Poplawski chooses to take full advantage of the appeal process, then even if he is sentenced to death, "it may not happen".

Richard Andrew Poplawski (born September 12, 1986) lived with his mother and grandmother in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Poplawski had previously enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, but he was discharged from boot camp after throwing a food tray at a drill instructor.