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Karinn Goode (left) is comforted by her mother Pamela Goode yesterday at the vigil.
JESSICA GRIFFIN / Daily News
Karinn Goode (left) is comforted by her mother Pamela Goode yesterday at the vigil.
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Goode relatives protest cop-shooting death

Family demands officer be fired

In a city where thousands of homicides go unsolved, Pamela Goode seethes with quiet fury.

Seventy-five days have passed since her son was gunned down on a Germantown street. Although police immediately identified the man who blasted two shots into Timothy "Tee" Goode's back, the shooter remains free.

That's because he's a Philadelphia police officer who says he acted in self-defense when Goode, grand-nephew of former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., pointed a gun his way after participating in a drug deal.

Cops say they found a 9 mm pistol and bag of crack vials near Goode's body. Goode's relatives say they don't believe that the gun or drugs belonged to him.

Yesterday morning, Goode's relatives rallied on Wayne Avenue near Logan Street, where the 24-year-old aspiring rapper and soon-to-be father collapsed Jan. 11 after an undercover officer shot him. They demonstrated again yesterday afternoon in front of Police Headquarters at 8th and Race streets.

They accused the Police Department of a cover-up and insisted that Goode, who had no criminal record and was valedictorian of his high school class, had been the victim of mistaken identity.

They demanded that the officer be fired and brought up on murder charges. They called on city leaders to step up training for police officers to reduce police-involved shootings. They decried stop-and-frisk as racial profiling. And they vowed to "fight for justice" until Goode's good name is restored.

Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, said the officer who shot Goode remains on desk duty pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation into the shooting. He confirmed that a Police Department surveillance camera posted at the intersection of Wayne Avenue and Logan Street did not capture the shooting.

The Daily News is not identifying the officer, 29, who has been on the force almost four years, because he has not been charged.

"He's of the law, but not above the law. [Police] want respect. In order to get respect, they have to give it," said Pamela Goode, Tee's mother.

"Commissioner Ramsey, do what's right. [Mayor] Nutter, the same thing. Lynne [Abraham, the city district attorney], the same thing," Pamela Goode continued. "Our tax dollars are not going to be used for a cover-up. We're not paying to have our people assassinated. The buck stops here."

The gathering, which drew about 60 people, at times seemed more church service than rally.

"God got this!" Pamela Goode shouted, as her listeners responded "Amen!"

There have been five fatal police-involved shootings so far this year compared with five for all of last year.

Cathie Abookire, Abraham's spokeswoman, declined to comment in detail on the case except to say: "We are committed to doing a full, fair and thorough investigation."

Before going to Police Headquarters, ralliers lit white candles and prayed for peace and justice.

A cousin of Timothy Goode, Ronald Moore, urged officers who were on the scene the night Goode died to give truthful accounts of what happened.

"They want the streets to talk; they ask people to step forward [as witnesses in other crimes]. That includes the police, too," said Moore, 42, of Bear, Del.

Outside Police Headquarters, ralliers didn't interact much with officers assigned to make sure the group was peacefully protesting and not interfering with anyone trying to go in and out of the circular building.

"Unjustified homicide! PPOs [Philadelphia police officers] will do the time!" they chanted as they marched. *

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