Family, friends of Anthony Allegrini Jr. rally to demand a ‘thorough’ probe, 4 months after he was shot to death by Pennsylvania State Police

About 100 friends and family members of 18-year-old Anthony Allegrini Jr. rallied Saturday to demand a “thorough investigation” into his death, four months after a Pennsylvania state trooper shot and killed him in June while attempting to disperse a car meet-up near Penn’s Landing.

A smattering of drivers honked their horns along to chants of “No justice, no peace, no corrupt police” as the group marched down Belmont Avenue from the Bala Cynwyd Shopping Center to the Pennsylvania State Police Troop K Barracks near West Fairmount park, where it unfurled a banner that read “Justice for Anthony Allegrini Jr.”

“This is dealing with grief and getting justice at the same time,” Enrique Latoison — the lawyer representing Allegrini’s parents, Jennifer and Anthony Allegrini Sr. — told reporters during the demonstration.

State Police Capt. Gerald McShea has maintained that Allegrini failed to yield to state troopers and struck two officers while driving an Audi S4 with three other people in the car. One of the troopers then shot Allegrini through the windshield, according to McShea. He died at the scene.

That’s not what supporters of Allegrini believe happened after reviewing social media videos from the night of the shooting; they appear to show officers refusing to give Allegrini medical attention and brandishing guns at bystanders filming the scene.

Both Pennsylvania State Police and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office are conducting investigations into what happened.

“You don’t know what you took, and you don’t even seem to care,” Mary Adam, Jennifer Allegrini’s cousin, shouted into a bullhorn in front of the state police barracks. “They didn’t lay a single finger on him to help.”

» READ MORE: The family of an 18-year-old fatally shot by Pa. State Police called for a ‘full, transparent investigation’ into the incident

Latoison said the Allegrinis want to set record straight about their son, who they say police and the media wrongfully characterized as an entitled criminal.

Allegrini Jr. was a 2022 Interboro High School graduate and hockey player who was deeply enamored with cars, weightlifting, and fishing, his father said.

He ran a car-detailing business with his best friend and “was always trying to make people feel better,” Allegrini Sr. said in an interview before the protest. “It was his mission.”

» READ MORE: Friends and family of Anthony Allegrini Jr. gather for his funeral as they push for a transparent investigation into his death

Throughout the rally, supporters shouted the name of the trooper they believe killed Allegrini, waving photos of the officer at oncoming traffic.

Pennsylvania State Police have said they would not release the identity of the trooper who shot Allegrini until the district attorney’s investigation has been completed.

Latoison alleges that his clients have been “ghosted” by police and investigators over the last four months and that the family was left to figure out the identity of the trooper on their own through interviews with other officers who came forward anonymously.

Losing Allegrini feels “worse than death … every couple of seconds I get a sledgehammer to the face that he’s gone,” his father said. “So on top of the loss and grieving, we have to deal with the lack of transparency.”

State police and the District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on whether they’ve been in touch with the family since the shooting.

Latoison believes that this course of action protects the officer “like a victim.”

“If you have a legitimate, justified shooting, then everyone should know [the trooper’s] name,” Latoison said in an interview. “But this isn’t the proper way to treat anyone who had a loved one killed by the police, justified or not.”

Protesters wore shirts with Allegrini’s senior portrait and held signs that read “good cops don’t cover for bad cops.”

“We want police officers to hold other police officers accountable,” Allegrini’s father said.

Brenna Malloy, who grew up across the street from the family in Interboro and thought of Allegrini as a brother, said she misses his hugs and sarcastic banter. “There’s an emptiness,” Malloy said. Allegrini “just wasn’t the type of person to be belligerent. He didn’t have it in him.”

During her speech, Adam characterized Allegrini as non-confrontational, joking that his hockey coaches often said he was too nice because he waited with injured players instead of jumping right back into the game.

“When I was working with him it didn’t feel like work,” said Nick Russo, a 2023 Interboro High School graduate and one of Allegrini’s closest friends. The duo started the car-detailing business last year.

The venture is on pause, Russo said. “Every time I tried to do it, I just wished he was there.”

Latoison said the protest was sparked in part by the dismissal of charges against Mark Dial, the since-fired Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed Eddie Irizarry after falsely reporting Irizarry lunged at him with a knife.

Irizarry’s shooting “was clear as day. … They had more concrete evidence with the body camera footage,” Allegrini Sr. told The Inquirer. “Our hearts sunk because we thought there would be some justice. ... It made us realize how hard of a battle it will be for us.”

During the time of Allegrini’s shooting, Pennsylvania state troopers were not equipped with body cameras. McShea agreed that footage would have been helpful in determining what exactly happened.

In August, Pennsylvania State Police unveiled a $40 million body camera pilot program that aims to mandate body cameras across the force after a trial period in Carlisle, Cumberland County.

Allegrini Sr. said his anger has intensified during the last four months.

“Anthony would’ve loved this,” Allegrini Sr. said of the rally. “He would have expected nothing less.”