Charges have been filed against a Pennsylvania constable and a man who was shot by the constable.

Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin on Sept. 3 announced that Kevin McCullers, 39, has been charged with resisting arrest, a second-degree misdemeanor, and Constable Howard Altemos, 57, has been charged with aggravated assault, a first-degree felony, and recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor.

Martin said a second constable, who was with Altemos when they tried to arrest McCullers on several bench warrants, was not charged.

Although Lehigh County’s Seventh Investigating grand jury recommended that a criminal complaint be filed against Bernardi, Martin said he did not approve a charge of recklessly endangering another person against Bernardi.

“I do not believe the case could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” Martin said. “The evidence showed that Bernardi only shot at a tire of Mr. McCullers’ vehicle, which he hit, in an attempt to disable the vehicle.”

The grand jury heard testimony from more than 15 witnesses, including McCullers and Whitehall Detective Andrew Millen, and reviewed 30 exhibits, including documents, photographs, crime scene diagrams, forensic and firearms reports and video and audio recordings presented by Chief Deputy District Attorney Charles F. Gallagher III, supervising attorney of the grand jury, before giving its presentment on July 24.

The presentment was reviewed by Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos, the supervising judge of the grand jury. Martin approved the charges against Altemos and McCullers based on the presentment.

According to the presentment, at 7:27 a.m. on July 17, 2014, Whitehall Township police responded to reports of a shooting by Pennsylvania constables at 3449 Portland Drive. Officers found McCullers in the driver’s seat of a vehicle with a gunshot wound to his back left shoulder.

The vehicle was perpendicular to the driveway, and part of the vehicle was on the driveway, sidewalk and grass. The vehicle was in reverse with the backup lights on.

Two constables who were at the scene said they had attempted to arrest McCullers for 13 bench warrants because of his failure to appear before a magisterial district judge for traffic violations, the DA’s office said. Altemos said that after Bernardi told McCullers about the warrants, McCullers tried to back out of the garage with the driver’s door open, pinning the constables against the wall of the garage, at which time Altemos said he fired his weapon. Bernardi said he shot into the front left tire of McCullers’ vehicle as it was backing down the driveway.

The grand jury reviewed photographs of McCullers’ position in the vehicle, the driver’s side door, the location of the vehicle, the garage door and marks on the garage frame and driver’s side door that indicated that the marks were created by the vehicle pulling out of the garage with the car door opened, the DA’s office said.

Tempinski’s examination of casings that were found outside the garage on the front yard, away from the driveway, indicated that the constables were out of the garage and either in the driveway or the yard when Altemos shot McCullers, the DA’s office said.

In addition, a doctor who treated McCullers said that McCullers became paralyzed as soon as the bullet lodged in his spine and that he would not have been able to move his legs to operate the vehicle, the DA’s office also said.

The grand jury determined that Altemos shot McCullers almost immediately before the vehicle stopped moving near the end of the driveway and away from the garage and that the shooting did not occur in the garage.

The grand jury concluded that McCullers was attempting to flee from the constables and that Altemos was in no danger of serious bodily injury or death when he shot McCullers and, therefore, was not justified in using deadly force.