McKeesport Police Officer Geriasimo Athans, already shot once in the neck, took cover behind his vehicle’s engine block Sunday afternoon and emptied his weapon at the fleeing gunman, who got away, according to a criminal complaint.

The complaint offers new details into the incident in which Koby Francis, 22, is accused of shooting Athans. Francis remained at large Monday afternoon.

Athans, 32 and a four-year veteran of the city’s police department, had just arrived at the Lysle Avenue station about 4:18 p.m., according to the complaint. Within a minute, he radioed to police dispatch that he’d been shot.

Coleman McDonough, superintendent of the Allegheny County Police Department, the agency now leading the investigation, on Monday released security footage that captured the shooting. It shows Athans opening the door to the rear passenger side and immediately stumbling backward. He ducks behind the front of the vehicle and Francis follows, continuing to fire. Francis then takes off out of range of the camera.

McDonough said Athans was not wearing a body-worn camera at the time, as McKeesport officers are not equipped with them.

He said Francis was searched during the arrest and somehow kept a weapon.

“Whether (Athans) complied with McKeesport policy, that’s part of their internal investigation after the fact,” McDonough said. “That’s not our priority here. Our priority is bringing Mr. Francis to justice.”

The chain of events that led to the shooting started hours earlier at the McKeesport station. Francis arrived there about 2:55 p.m., at which time he was served with a protection-from-abuse order. The order covered Francis’s 4-month-old son and the child’s mother.

At around 3:21 p.m., McKeesport police received a call from a relative who was babysitting the child, according to the complaint. The caller said Francis was attempting to take his child from the apartment, though he was gone by the time officers arrived.

About a half-hour later, McKeesport police received a second call about Francis, this time reporting that he was again in the process of violating the order.

Civil court records show the 24-year-old woman with whom Francis has a child applied for the PFA on Dec. 10. While details of what led the woman to seek the PFA were not available, the judge temporarily awarded full custody of the infant to the woman, and Francis was barred from having contact with the boy until a final PFA hearing, which was scheduled for Dec. 28.

He was also ordered to turn over all firearms.

The call to police just before 4 p.m. led them to a home on Yester Square, where they found Francis in his purple 2005 Ford Escape XLT, according to the complaint. The caller reported that Francis was again trying to get to the child.

Police would later note that during a search of the car, they recovered a .380-caliber handgun from the passenger-side seat pocket.

Athans and another McKeesport officer took Francis into custody about 4:04 p.m., according to the complaint. At 4:14 p.m., Athans via radio asked that dispatchers make a note that Francis “was kicking inside the patrol vehicle.”

He arrived at the station four minutes later, according to the complaint, and radioed at 4:19 he’d been shot.

WARNING: The following video contains images that may be disturbing to some viewers

Athans was taken to UPMC Presbyterian with gunshot wounds to his neck and left shoulder. He was interviewed by an Allegheny County Police Detective from his hospital bed.

Athans told the detective that when arrived at the police station, he walked to the passenger side of the cruiser to take Francis from the back seat, according to the complaint. He said that “as soon as he opened the door, he saw that Francis had a revolver,” according to the complaint.

Francis allegedly immediately opened fire, hitting Athans in the neck. The officer told detectives that Francis was outside the car, so he tried to take cover behind the car’s engine block, according to the complaint. He said Francis continued to shoot, hitting him twice more in the left shoulder.

Athans, according to the complaint, said he returned fire as Francis took off, emptying his service weapon. Investigators later found a silver .32-caliber revolver on the ground near the rear of Athans’s patrol car, and it had five spent casings in the chamber.

Police officials said that Athans would likely be discharged from the hospital “in the next day or two.”

The search for Francis, who police said was in handcuffs when he fled Sunday night, was still ongoing. Police had previously noted that Francis had originally been handcuffed behind his back, but surveillance footage from when he fled showed his hands in front of him.

Regarding searches of cars and homes Sunday night in pursuit of Francis, McDonough said that complaints should be directed to the departments involved, including his. Still, he said the priority is finding Francis.

“I just find it hard to believe that we’re talking about these issues when Mr. Francis is still out there in the community endangering innocent citizens,” he said. “I think that’s the priority we ought to be talking about today.”

Francis is 6 feet, 2 inches tall and described as having a thin build. He has black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black hoodie, camouflage pants and black shoes with white soles. Anyone with information is asked to call 911.

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