PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — While standing along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on the Fourth of July, fireworks going off in the distance, Philadelphia Highway Patrol Officer Sergio Diggs suddenly felt like he had been hit by a sledgehammer.
“It almost knocked me off my feet,” he said in an interview with NBC10. “I had no idea at the time that I had been shot.”
The bullet grazed 36-year-old Diggs in the head. He was on security detail near the Philadelphia Museum of Art Monday night when he and another officer were injured.
Police say a gunshot that was fired into the air from a distance, possibly more than a mile away, fell and hit Diggs’ patrol cap. A second shot hit another officer on duty, Montgomery County Sheriff Deputy John Foster. He was grazed in the shoulder.
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Diggs, who was bleeding, and Foster were both taken to the hospital. They were treated and released within a few hours. He is now at home bandaged and recovering.
“I mean, it made me feel like I got a couple friends upstairs looking out for me,” Diggs told NBC10.
In a Wednesday news conference, police officials said they have been unable to pinpoint where exactly the shots were fired from and who pulled the trigger.
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“We live in a really heavy populated city and people have no business doing that,” Diggs added. “People should know better.”
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, as of Wednesday evening, said the reward for information leading to an arrest in this case has increased to $42,500.
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