Family of man killed in Harrisburg traffic accident says he made his career helping children

NOTE: This post was updated at 5:12 p.m. on Monday with some comments from Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo on the status of the police investigation.

Paul M. Kattouf, the 52-year-old man who was shot and killed in downtown Harrisburg on Sunday in an apparent road rage incident, was the son of prominent parents who had dedicated their careers to helping others.

“He was very kind and caring,” his mother, Heather Kattouf Jackson, said Monday. “While others were only driven by the almighty dollar, he helped people. And he took care of them.”

Paul Kattouf of Susquehanna Township was identified by police Monday morning as the man killed in the 5:30 p.m. shooting on State Street within sight of the state Capitol building.

Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo told PennLive on Monday that police know who fired the shot that killed Kattouf and that person is cooperating with the investigation. The investigation will also use witness interviews and relevant video footage.

Chardo said that as of Monday afternoon, no final decision had been made on whether and what charges were appropriate in the case.

Paul Kattouf was a long-time resident of the Harrisburg area and worked as a behavioral therapist at the Harrisburg branch of Mission Autism Clinics, a company that provides day care and after-school therapy programs for children with autism.

His father, Theodore Kattouf, described Paul to PennLive on Monday as a lifelong loner whose greatest concern was the children he worked with and trying to get them to a point in life where they could reach their full potential.

“He was unmarried. No children. Lived alone,” said Theodore Kattouf. “But he had a good soul. And he had not only a good heart, but also a strong one. … He had a lot of compassion for these children.”

In his position, Kattouf would have been directly involved in the implementation of treatment plans, according to the occupational classification for health care workers.

According to online records, earlier in his career, Kattouf was an employee of TW Ponessa & Associates, a Lancaster-based firm that provides a variety of mental health services throughout south-central Pennsylvania.

Theodore Kattouf was a career diplomat who served in various diplomatic positions in the Middle East before being appointed by the President as U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates in 1998 and to Syria in 2001.

During Paul’s early years, the family worked in the diplomatic service and lived for a time in Kuwait and Tunisia.

But that life changed in the late 1970s after his parents divorced, Kattouf said.

Paul Kattouf and his two siblings lived with their mother Heather in the Harrisburg area at the time.

His mother became a successful executive in the hotel industry, eventually serving as the first general manager of the Comfort Suites hotel in Carlisle, which was hailed as a central part of the downtown revitalization effort when it opened in 1999.

Heather Kattouf Jackson works part-time on the faculty at Penn State Harrisburg.

Paul graduated from Central Dauphin High School, where he was a member of the wrestling team. He enrolled at West Liberty State University in West Virginia but dropped out after his freshman year to pursue other interests, his parents said Monday.

A few years later, however, Kattouf resumed his studies, first at Harrisburg Area Community College and later at Penn State Harrisburg, where he eventually earned his bachelor’s degree.

His father, still reeling from Sunday’s news, said he last spoke to his son on Saturday morning. They spoke regularly, he said, often sharing differing views on the day’s headlines.

“He was a very intelligent guy,” his father said. “He was a person who knew what was going on in our world.”

Most recently, the elder Kattouf said, Paul expressed personal satisfaction at losing 20 pounds. Kattouf said he left Saturday’s conversation with the good feeling that every parent has when they believe their children are happy.

Besides his work, his parents said, Paul found fulfillment in his family, personal training and following current events and sports.

Neither of his parents knew anything about Paul’s whereabouts or activities on the Sunday before the fatal incident in Harrisburg.

But Theodore Kattouf said he already knew enough to denounce what he believes is rampant gun violence in America, which is now affecting his family.

“Like so many other people, he doesn’t deserve this,” Kattouf said. “Something has to be done in this country to stop this incredible epidemic of shootings and murders. … We are devastated, all of us.”

According to recent reporting by The Trace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reporting on gun violence in the United States, cases of shootings related to road rage have increased significantly over the past decade, from 92 specific shootings in 2014 to 456 in 2023.

Last year’s figure was lower than the 10-year high of 502 incidents in 2022.

According to The Trace, the numbers come from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, whose data arguably provides the most comprehensive picture of gun violence on the country’s streets and highways.

The Trace’s reporting showed 106 separate road rage shootings in Pennsylvania over the past decade, with nearly half of them occurring in the past two years: 30 in 2022 and 22 in 2023.

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania State Police attributed a May 31 gunshot death on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and subsequent suicide in a Berks County parking lot to a “road rage-style incident.”

Some researchers believe the increase in road rage shootings is related to the recent increase in gun ownership rates across the country.

“Although guns do not directly cause violence, they dramatically increase the likelihood that any conflict situation will end in death,” Brad Bushman, a communications professor at Ohio State University who researches aggression and violence, told The Trace in 2022.

“Imagine you’re in your car and someone cuts you off. If you don’t have a gun in your car, you might give them the middle finger. And if you have a gun in your car, you might shoot them.”

Harrisburg Police Captain Atah Akakpo-Martin previously told PennLive that Sunday’s shooting appeared to be connected to an earlier traffic dispute on Interstate 81.

A witness – one of several people who were leaving a dinner at St. Patrick Cathedral when the shooting occurred – told PennLive that Paul Kattouf got out of his vehicle to confront the occupants of a black Chevrolet sedan on State Street between Second and Third streets.

Kattouf then apparently sprayed pepper spray into the car, the witness said, whereupon a man in the Chevrolet warned him to step back before shooting him.

“We heard him say, ‘Get off my car’ and then ‘Pow!'” the witness said, imitating a gunshot.

PennLive.com intern DaniRae Renno contributed to this report.