Officer ‘justified’ in woman’s shooting at former Allentown hospital, DA finds

An investigation found an Allentown Police Department officer justified in the shooting of a woman that happened at the former Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital on South Fifth Street in Allentown on Jan. 11, 2026.

In a statement shared on Wednesday morning, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said the results of an investigation into the incident found an officer was justified in shooting a woman — who survived the incident — who was wielding a knife in an incident that unfolded on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the former Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital, located along the 800 block of South Fifth Street in Allentown.

“This investigation found that the officer’s use of force was justified. His actions were reasonable both objectively and subjectively. The woman who was struck posed an imminent risk of harm to the officer as well as to two Allentown EMS medics, a hospital security guard and arguably herself,” Holihan said in a statement.

In a retelling of events of the day, Holihan said that a guard that was working at the facility at about 5:50 p.m. said he let the woman into the lobby after he heard a “hard knocking” on a window.

The guard, the district attorney said, then encountered the woman involved in this incident who asked him to contact medical professionals, claiming she had been abused.

He allowed the woman into the lobby and contacted medial professionals, the district attorney said, when, moments later, as she was being helped by medical professionals, one EMS worker yelled “she has a knife.”

The guard told investigators that he heard the woman say, “It’s just a knife; I’m not going to hurt anyone,” before the shooting occurred.

Police were dispatched to the scene on a report of a woman in distress, officials said, and, according to Holihan, the officer involved in the shooting gave repeated clear commands for the woman to drop a knife she was holding.

The officer, Holihan said, then fired one time, striking the woman.

According to the district attorney, a review of the officer’s body-worn camera footage shows “he gave 16 clear verbal commands to the woman to drop the knife and she complied with none of those commands.”

Instead, Holihan said that the woman responded by “waving the knife around and moving close to the officer and first responders while making statements like, ‘It’s just a knife,’ and ‘Are you serious?'”

The shooting happened, Holihan said, only after the woman moved closer to the officer and turned her back, going through a white box of her possessions she brought with her to the former hospital.

In fact, according to the district attorney, the officer was attempting to switch from a firearm to a taser, in order to be prepared with a less-lethal option, but before the officer could make the switch, the woman “turned back toward the officer with the knife in one hand and a device in her other hand that appeared to be either a gun, taser or another type of weapon. The officer described it as a yellow and black object that had a handle and a trigger on it.”

As she moved in, what the district attorney described as a “firing manner” with the object in her hand, the officer fired one shot.

The woman fell and tossed away the object, while repeatedly saying “That wasn’t a gun,” the district attorney said.

“The object that the woman had in her right hand and pointed at the officer was ultimately found not to be a taser, but a digital infrared non-contact thermometer, also known as a ‘temperature gun.’ It resembles a taser in many aspects including size, shape and color scheme. It has a handle and trigger and it was pointed at the officer when he discharged his firearm,” Holihan said in his report.

Based on the investigation into this incident, Holihan said the shooting was justified and no charges would be filed against the officer involved.