Philadelphia – A murder charge was filed Monday against a man in the recent death of a police officer he has already served time for shooting more than four decades ago.
William Barnes, 71, was charged two weeks after former Officer Walter T. Barclay died from an infection at age 64. The Bucks County Medical Examiner’s Officer ruled the death a homicide, saying it stemmed from a gunshot wound Barnes inflicted in 1966. Barclay, who was left a paraplegic, died Aug. 19.
The rookie officer was shot Nov. 27, 1966, while trying to stop a burglary of a beauty shop. 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 know Barnes said he has tried to atone by talking publicly about his regret and the lives he ruined. But Rosalyn Harrison, Barclay’s sister, said Barnes should serve time for murder. She said her brother suffered for decades from problems related to the shooting, including pneumonia, bedsores and recurrent infections.
Barclay never expressed bitterness about his fate and mentioned his shooter only once, she said.
