Philadelphia police officials announced new information about the investigation into the shooting death of 12-year-old Thomas Siderio, Jr. Listen to the full briefing below:
Original story follows:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia's top prosecutor said the public will soon know more about an incident last week in which police shot and killed a 12-year-old.
KYW Newsradio has learned officials are now reviewing video that may change the course of the investigation. Sources said there are some questions about whether the boy had a gun in his hand when he was shot.
Police have said all four of the officers on Barbara Street in South Philadelphia last Tuesday were in an unmarked car, not in uniform. They had just put their police lights on when they say Thomas Siderio, Jr., 12, shot at them.
Sources said two of the officers jumped out of the car, ducked behind a vehicle and fired back. One of them shot once, not striking the boy. Police said the other fired three times, hitting Siderio once in the back.
At an unrelated press conference, District Attorney Larry Krasner said he couldn’t comment on the case, as it is being investigated by both his office and the Philadelphia Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau.
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"Those details [are] and always [have] been 'Where does the bullet enter the body? Where does it travel after it enters the body? How close was the gun at the time the bullet was fired?'" Krasner said.
He said the public will be learning more about what happened in the next few days.
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"Sometimes you don’t have it all right away. Sometimes there is forensic testing that takes a little bit to come down. Sometimes there’s a search or a subpoena out there, and the documents or the video or whatever it may be, is not back," said Krasner.
"There is more information to gather, and there are more witnesses to interview."
J. Conor Corcoran, a lawyer for the boy’s father, said they have filed a writ of summons — the precursor to a lawsuit — and claims this was an unjustified killing. They are trying to force police to hand over investigative materials.
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Typically the Police Department releases the names of any officer who shoots someone, but they have said they will not be doing that any time soon, as there have been threats made against the officers and their police unit.
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