Death sentence upheld for man convicted of killing officer in 2005 Bucks County hospital shooting
HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a man convicted of murdering a police officer and injuring two others during a shooting at a Bucks County hospital will remain on death row.
Robert Anthony Flor was brought to St. Mary's Hospital in Langhorne on Sept. 26, 2005 for a blood alcohol test after officers suspected him of drunk driving. While at the hospital, prosecutors say Flor took a police officer's weapon and opened fire, killing Newtown Borough Police Officer Brian Gregg.
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Officer James Warunek and hospital employee Joseph Epp were also injured in the shooting.
Gregg was 46 years old and had been a full-time officer for the borough for nearly a year after previously working there as a part-time officer.
Flor plead guilty to first-degree murder and no contest to 39 other counts, including attempted murder, aggravated assault, and robbery. A jury unanimously voted to impose the death penalty in 2006 for the first-degree murder of Officer Gregg.
Prosecutors say Flor filed a petition claiming that he was intellectually disabled and therefore legally ineligible for the death penalty. Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Alan M. Rubenstein later denied Flor's petition after several legal hearings.
Flor, 54, appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a majority of the Court affirmed Judge Rubenstein’s decision and agreed that Flor was not intellectually disabled.
"Robert Flor was convicted of killing police officer Brian Gregg, shooting police officer James Warunek, and shooting hospital employee Joseph Epp in 2006 and has been trying to get off of death row ever since," District Attorney Matt Weintraub said. "All he offers are excuses. We will meet him at every attempt he makes to evade his death sentence, which he earned."
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