PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The police officers who were first on the scene when Philadelphia Police Sgt. Richard Mendez was shot and killed two years ago in an airport parking garage took the stand Thursday on day two of the trial against his accused killers.
An airport police officer said he and three other colleagues ran after hearing an officer was ‘down’ in Parking Lot D of Philadelphia International on Oct. 12, 2023. He said when he arrived, he saw Mendez lying motionless, flat on his back, but there was very little blood. The officer then tearfully recalled trying to find a pulse and perform CPR.
Mendez later died at the hospital.
The jury also heard the 9-1-1 call Mendez’s partner, Officer Raul Ortiz, made that night. In a panic, Ortiz relays that he and Mendez had been shot in an airport parking garage.
Ortiz yells that he has been shot in the arm and repeats: “Oh my God, Oh my God.”
He then seems to realize Mendez is also shot and screams that two officers are down and for emergency services to “hurry, hurry” to the scene at the airport before calling out Mendez’s name again.
The officer who took Ortiz to the hospital told jurors he saw Ortiz running around and bleeding when he scooped the injured cop and took him to the hospital, where he was treated.
Yobranny Martinez-Fernandez and Hendrick Pena-Fernandez face second-degree murder and attempted murder charges in connection with Mendez’s killing. They are accused of shooting the pair of officers while they and two others were trying to steal a Jeep in the airport parking lot.