Marchello Woodard killed by Pennsylvania parole agents

Police and other law enforcement adjacents have killed a lot of people under various dubious circumstances but in all our years of covering their misdeeds, we can’t say we’ve ever heard a case like this.

According to ErieNewsNow, an unarmed Black man named Marchello Woodard was gunned down on the evening of July 2, 2025, after being accosted by two Pennsylvania State Parole agents. The unnamed agents were conducting compliance checks around 10 pm on the night in question. Let them tell it, they recognized Woodard as he was sitting in his car dropping off his girlfriend’s niece, Dion Pulliam, when the agents approached him. Pulliam recounted the harrowing incident saying, “They asked him to step out. He was about to step out until he noticed something.” At that time, Woodard began to drive off when one of the agents grabbed hold of his vehicle. “He pulled off, the officer was holding onto the window. “Shots were let off. The officer was still holding on, shooting”, Pulliam said.

Erie police officers were notified of the shooting and upon arriving on the scene, allegedly tried to administer aid but Woodard would ultimately succumb to his injuries. According to an ErieNowNews update, the family has released a public statement with demands for accountability and calling out the police for their lack of transparency.

“It is abhorrent that a grieving family should ever be faced with begging for statements because of a holiday weekend or because the life of our loved one is not important enough,” the family wrote adding that progress in the case has come “only at the insistence and public outcry of the family and the community.”

The family is also demanding the suspension and termination of both parole officers involved, murder charges against both men, a public retraction of what they feel is misleading information about Marchello Woodard’s role in the incident, and a full investigation of all parties and agencies involved.

The family deserves all that and much, much more. They deserve a country where “squeeze first, ask questions last” isn’t the norm for armed state agents when they encounter a Black body.