PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The trial began Tuesday with opening statements and testimony in the case against a former Philadelphia police officer accused of shooting and killing an unarmed Black man five years ago.
Eric Ruch fatally shot 25-year-old Dennis Plowden in December 2017 after a high-speed car chase in Germantown. Authorities said Plowden was shot only seconds after he crashed his car at 77 mph, stumbled out of it, and fell to the ground.
The defense doesn’t contest Ruch fired that shot, but they contend Ruch was justified in the shooting.
Ruch was charged with third-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter in October 2020 following a grand jury investigation.
In opening statements Tuesday, prosecutors said Plowden was listening to commands when he was confronted by police, and that Ruch “intentionally shot Dennis in the head” less than six seconds after he got on the scene.
Prosecutors Tuesday called Plowden’s widow, Tania Bond, as their first witness, and Judge Barbara McDermott limited her testimony, as to not enter emotion into trial. Instead, she allowed prosecutors to show Plowden was a “living being” before the interaction.
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The medical examiner then told jurors a bullet grazed one of Plowden’s fingers, passed through two others and landed in his head. The judge admonished prosecutors for not showing a graphic to illustrate Plowden’s wounds.
The assigned police-involved shooting detective told jurors the fatal interaction began when Ruch and his partner were assigned to find a white Hyundai which was used in a homicide, and to consider the occupants "armed & dangerous." A brief chase ensued when Plowden was pulled over first at North 16th Street and West Nedro Avenue, and then hit three parked cars before crashing into a gate pole three blocks up.
An eyewitness who lived at 19th and Nedro in December of 2017 said he sprang to his kitchen window when he heard a loud screeching sound and saw flashes of light, and watched as that car hit other cars and spinned, and the bumper hit a gate pole.
He said following close behind were two unmarked police cars and several marked police cars.
He said he saw Plowden get out, and that’s when he said he yelled to the cops, “Don’t shoot him!” before hearing the fatal shot.
But when the defense cross-examined, the man admitted to jurors he told investigators in a police interview that he didn’t think the officer was wrong, but that he “just wished he shot him somewhere else.”
Officials had said that once stopped and out of the car, Plowden would not take his hands out of his pockets. That’s when Ruch fired the shot.
A crime scene officer went through pictures of the scene, which the detective called "a huge mess" with car parts and fluid all over the road.
According to the grand jury presentment in 2020, Plowden, dazed and unarmed, was holding his empty left hand in front of his face when Ruch fired the fatal shot. Prosecutors said four other officers who were on the scene and had taken cover did not fire their weapons.
The grand jury said Ruch shot Plowden in the head without justification as Plowden looked “dazed and lost on the sidewalk.”
Ruch was fired from the Police Department a short time later. At the time, then-Commissioner Richard Ross said Ruch displayed poor tactics.
“Justice will look like Eric Ruch owning up to what he did, apologizing and taking accountability for his actions. That is what justice would look like for me and as of now, we haven’t seen that,” said Bond outside the courthouse Tuesday.
“His life was lost for nothing. I don’t know another way to classify it.”
She said Plowden was attending night school at the time to get his high school diploma, and was only a few credits shy.
“He was loving. He loved his children. He loved his family,” said Bond. “He loved animals. Generally, (he) was a sharer.”
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Grand jury presentment
It remained unclear why police sought to stop Plowden’s car in the first place. According to the 2020 grand jury, Ruch and his partner began following Plowden and asked police dispatch to check the registration of his car.
Ruch’s partner told investigators after the shooting that they had stopped Plowden’s Hyundai because of a patrol alert that connected it to a homicide, according to the grand jury.
But other officers said they were unaware of the patrol alert — which had not been broadcast over police radio — and all the information sought by Ruch from police dispatch was already contained in the alert, the grand jury said.
The grand jury also said three of the four officers present for the shooting testified they did not see Plowden raise his left hand, while the fourth said he didn’t recall what Plowden was doing with it.
Other eyewitnesses said Plowden was on his back and struggling to sit up when he was shot, with one saying Plowden was gesturing with his left hand in front of his face. Another testimony came from a neighbor who claimed to have saw the shooting.
A lawsuit filed by Plowden’s wife said he was propping himself up with his right arm while holding out his left hand in a vain attempt to prevent Ruch from shooting him. A medical examiner said the bullet tore through the fingers of Plowden’s left hand before hitting him in the head, indicating the hand was raised, according to the grand jury.
Officers also said they saw Plowden’s right hand in his pocket, with one saying “it looked like he had a gun in there,” the grand jury said. The other eyewitnesses did not mention Plowden’s right hand.
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Ruch fired the fatal shot just 6 to 8 seconds after getting to the crash scene, the grand jury said.
According to state law, officers can use deadly force when a person is trying to escape and “has committed or attempted to commit a forcible felony,” or if they have a deadly weapon.
The trial is expected to last for the next week and a half, with another day of testimony expected to begin Wednesday morning.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.