Thursday, May 30, 2013

Seven Police Gunbattles This Week in the City of Brotherly Love

Police in Philadelphia were involved in three shootings yesterday, bringing the number of police gunbattles this week to 7.

Philly.com reports:

 In the most recent, police in Germantown last night around 10 p.m. were called to Wayne Avenue near Berkeley Street for a shooting and encountered a gunman there, according to police sources. When cops arrived, they encountered the suspect, who refused to drop his weapon, prompting an officer to fire at him, wounding him several times. That suspect, whose identity and age were unknown late last night, was pronounced dead at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

A 2-year-old boy also suffered a graze wound to the head in the incident, police said. Officials said they were unsure whether the child, who was in stable condition last night at Einstein, was wounded by the suspect's gunfire or caught in the cross-fire from the responding officers[...]

Less than 12 hours before that shooting, police said officers responding to a call for a person with a gun encountered an armed man on 4th Street near York shortly after 10:30 a.m. The officers spotted the man there, running from another cop. As officers chased the suspect, he allegedly turned and pointed a gun at one of them. An officer fired, striking the suspect once in the back and once in the buttocks.

The suspect, whose identity was not released, was taken to Temple University Hospital in critical condition. Police said a gun was recovered at the scene.

Shortly after 3 p.m. in Kingsessing, police said officers responded to a shooting on Frazier Street near Chester Avenue and later encountered the 19-year-old male suspect a few blocks away near 53rd and Greenway. The suspect immediately shot at them, police said. The officers returned fire, striking him multiple times in the face and body.

The suspect was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in critical condition. Police said a silver handgun was recovered from the suspect.[...]

No officers were injured in the shootings. All three incidents are under investigation.
The rash of shootings marks seven by Philadelphia police in the past week and brings this year's total to 22. Last year, police-involved shootings rose nearly 50 percent to 52 shootings. That number marks a 10-year high.

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