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by Andy Sheehan
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― There are new developments in a story that shocked and saddened our region.

Michael Ellerbe was an unarmed 12-year old, when two state troopers shot him to death in Uniontown on Christmas Eve three years ago.

The troopers were cleared but now a lead investigator is questioning their version of events.

KDKA Investigator Andy Sheehan reports that lead investigator says he lost his job for questioning the official version of events.

In court papers, that lead investigator alleges a police cover up, citing two key pieces of evidence that he says, don't add up.

On Christmas Eve 2002, 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe bails out of a stolen car in Uniontown and is chased on foot by two state troopers.

After a few hundred yards, one trooper raises his service revolver and shoots -- hitting the boy in the back, killing him.

Three years later, Ellerbe's father still wants to know why.

"I just want justice," said Michael Hickenbottom, Ellerbe's father. "I just want what's right. Right is right and wrong is wrong and this was definitely wrong."

Ellerbe was a small boy -- only five feet tall. He had no gun. In his pocket, $1.12 in change, a small pocket knife and three Pokemon cards. And yet the trooper who fired said he believed Ellerbe to be a threat.

According to state police: Troopers Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry were chasing the boy when Ellerbe hopped a fence.

Trooper Curry scaled the same fence and fell, and his gun accidentally went off.

At an inquest, Trooper Nassan, testified that seeing Curry fall and hearing the shot, he believed Ellerbe had shot Curry.

And so, he raised his gun and shot the boy.

A coroner's jury and later the U.S. Attorney agreed it was a tragic mistake.

"The death of child is a tragedy, but there is absolutely no evidence in this case to support a federal criminal charge," said U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan in 2004.

But former state police sergeant Jim Baranowski claims there is a cover-up.

He was the officer in charge of the scene the night of the Ellerbe shooting.

In court documents Baranowski says he didn't believe the troopers' story, and as a result, was kicked off the case.

Then, despite a near spotless record, he began getting disciplinary citations and was eventually forced out of the state police.

"They told him you either get out or you're fired," said Ellerbe Family Attorney Joel Sansone. "And all because he stood up and said this is a bad shoot and you're covering up the truth."
State Police are declining all comment on both the Ellerbe case and this wrongful termination suit brought by Baranowski.

Baranowski also declined to be interviewed.

But he's spoken at length with the Ellerbe Family attorneys who say that among other things, Baranowksi challenged Trooper Curry's story that his gun discharged close to his face when he went over the fence.

"Baranowski ordered a swab of Curry's face which did not show any discharge of powder burns. He also ordered a fence swab which found no powder burns either. And that can't be so if the gun went off as Curry said it did."

Another inconsistency: Trooper Nassan testified he was nine feet behind Curry when he shot Ellerbe and yet his shell casing was found at the fence line.

Tests conducted by Ellerbe's attorneys show that the shell should have ejected backwards -- and that the casing should have been at least 15 feet behind the fence line.

Sansone says he can reach only one conclusion.

"There's no question in my mind that Nassan was at the fence line with Curry when they both fired," he said.

Four days after he was shot and killed, Michael Ellerbe was buried and, as he did then, his father is still asking questions he says for his own sake and the sake of his son.

"We wanted some answers," he said. "We wanted to know what really happened. And we wanted some justice -- justice for my son so he can rest in peace."

These two cases are winding their way to trial.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)