Video: Man Shoots at PA Trooper in Roadside Battle, Then Gets 100 Years in Prison

Warning: Graphic footage

A judge in Pennsylvania sentenced a man who shot at state troopers to 53 years and six months to 110 years in prison.

Daniel Clary, 22, was convicted of attempted murder of law enforcement officers and other crimes for a Nov. 7 incident where he opened fire at two Pennsylvania State Police troopers during a traffic stop. Dashcam footage from a trooper’s car was released earlier this month, showing the shootout.

Pennsylvania State police Cpl. Seth Kelly, who nearly died in the incident, gave a statement on Aug. 31, reported The Allentown Morning Call.

Kelly was helping another trooper arrest Clary in Northampton County. Clary had been pulled over for speeding and failed field sobriety tests, according to The Associated Press. He also opened fire at Trooper Ryan Seiple. Both troopers opened fire, hitting Clary several times before he drove himself to the hospital.

“If you would have cooperated ... and not taken the law into your own hands, none of this would have happened,” Kelly said in court. “I pray you never get released from prison.”

Forks Township police detective Philomena Kelly, the wife of the shot officer, called Clary’s actions “callous, senseless and simply unthinkable.”

She also said to him: “You truly should hang your head in shame.”

Kelly told Northampton County Judge Stephen Baratta that he also suffered “nightmares nonstop for 12 straight days” during his the coma due to the medication, reported Lehigh Valley Live. “I felt as if I was in hell,” Kelly said.

First Deputy District Attorney Terence Houck called  Kelly “a walking, talking miracle” after the incident, according to the Morning Call.

Clary’s uncle, also named David Clary, said in court that head injuries from sports and assaults changed his nephew’s demeanor. He said that Clary is a “good kid” but is easily confused, adding that he should have never been in possession of a firearm, Lehigh Valley Live reported.

“He had been assaulted by multiple people. He suffered brain injuries. And he reacted like someone with serious brain injuries and dysfunction,” his attorney Janet Jackson said. “There is a reason to show some compassion for Mr. Clary.”

A doctor who examined Clary said that he suffered from “personality disorder with paranoid schizo-typal features,” but that didn’t prevent him from knowing right from wrong.

Dashcam Video

In the full unedited video, which can be seen here, Clary can be seen fighting with the two police troopers before trying to get control of an officer’s firearm. The Morning Call reported that he managed to dislodge Seiple’s ammunition magazine.

Kelly’s backup weapon dropped to the ground in the struggle, forcing Seiple to grab it and throw it to the side, according to the Morning Call. Seiple and Kelly then Tased Carey several times.

Clary got up after being Tased and went back to his car to grab his own gun, the report said. Clary and Seiple then shot at each other.

Clary fired six rounds. One hit Kelly’s femoral artery.

The video shows one of the officers firing at the back window, shattering it, before Clary fled in his car.  Reports said Seiple made a tourniquet around Kelly’s leg to staunch the flow of blood, police said.

Lehigh Valley Live reported that Kelly arrived at a nearby hospital clinically dead, and he spent 12 days in a medically induced coma and 25 days in the hospital. Kelly said he doesn’t remember the shooting.