PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A man is dead and a Philadelphia police officer is recovering from a gunshot wound to the hand after an encounter inside the basement of a Kensington home Wednesday night.
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According to police, a group of bike patrol officers heard gunfire while riding along Ruth Street near Somerset Avenue. Around the same time, police were called to the same block for reports of gunshots.
“When the responding officers arrived on scene, they located shell casings on the ground directly in front of the property, and then they heard a commotion coming from inside said property,” said Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw.
When the officers entered, people inside the house directed them to the basement, where they encountered a man in a crawl space. The man began throwing rocks at them, according to police.
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They ordered the man to get out of the crawl space, and he refused. Police said the officers tried using a Taser on the man, but it didn’t work. He got into a tussle with them, they said.
“The male tried to take the Taser from one of them, at which point they all heard a shot, and one of the officers fell to the ground, suffering from a gunshot wound to his hand,” Outlaw said.
Two officers and a sergeant then fired their weapons and rushed the injured 27-year-old officer to the hospital.
A SWAT team went into the house and discovered the man was dead. A gun was recovered at the scene.
Police don’t know yet who fired the first shot.
“Where the rounds came from, who shot, how many — all of that are things that any preliminary investigation wouldn’t be able to tell you right away,” Outlaw said, adding that investigators are now piecing together who fired the bullet that struck the officer, and exactly how the man died, through ballistics, witness interviews and body camera video.
The injured officer has been treated and has since left the hospital. He has been on the force for one year.
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