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• Murder charge filed in policeman's death

September 04, 2007 (Philadelphia, PA) – A 71-year-old man was charged with murder after the death of a police officer he shot more than four decades ago, a crime for which he has already served a prison term.

William Barnes, 71, was charged two weeks after former Officer Walter T. Barclay died from an infection at the age of 64. The Bucks County Medical Examiner's Officer ruled the death a homicide, saying it stemmed from the gunshot wound Barclay suffered in 1966.

Barclay, a rookie officer, was shot Nov. 27, 1966, while trying to stop the burglary of a beauty shop in the city's East Oak Lane section. Barclay, who was left a paraplegic, died Aug. 19.

Barnes, who served a 10- to 20-year attempted murder sentence, has been living in a halfway house and working at a supermarket.

Several people who have known Barnes in recent years said he has been trying to atone by talking publicly about his regrets about his actions and the lives he ruined.

But Rosalyn Harrison, Barclay's sister, has said Barnes should serve time for murder. She said her brother had problems for decades stemming from the shooting, including pneumonia, bedsores and recurrent infections.

Barclay, however, never expressed bitterness about his fate and only mentioned his shooter once in all those years, she said.

Homicide detectives said Barnes is in custody.

-The Associated Press