Raymond Pelzer celebrating his 25th birthday on June 7, 2005, less than a year before he was shot to death by a Philadelphia police officer after a foot pursuit. Pelzer's family has filed a suit.
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Raymond Pelzer was playing dice on a known West Philadelphia drug corner when two police officers approached him.
Pelzer, 25, handed over his identification but ran off before the officers learned that he was wanted for a probation violation.
Moments later, an officer cornered Pelzer in a yard. Pelzer refused to show his hands, appeared to be searching in his waistband, and eventually thrust out his hand while holding a cell phone, according to court records.
Officer Marvin Burton fired once, killing Pelzer, who was not armed.
Three separate investigations - by the District Attorney's Office, the police Internal Affairs Division, and the Firearms Discharge Review Board - all ruled the 2006 shooting justifiable.
But lawyers for Pelzer's family say there was no need to chase him through the neighborhood's alleys - Pelzer posed no immediate threat, and officers knew that he lived nearby.
In a federal lawsuit, they argued that Pelzer would be alive today if the Police Department had "commonsense" guidelines for foot pursuits, which they say are "strong in emotion, weak in tactics."
A federal judge recently said that argument could have merit before a jury.
The family is seeking monetary damages and might ask for a court order forcing the Police Department to adopt foot-pursuit guidelines.
Pelzer's death came a year after the department's former integrity officer issued a report urging the department to ban common but questionable foot-pursuit tactics, and to set guidelines for when officers could chase fleeing suspects.
The report noted that nearly half of all police shootings between 1998 and 2003 happened after foot chases.
The integrity officer, Ellen Green-Ceisler, is now a judge on Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
The officers in the Pelzer shooting, including the one who fired the fatal shot, made several of the tactical errors outlined in the integrity officer's report, said Gregg Zeff, a Pelzer family attorney.
Foot chases, he said, often can lead officers into dangerous confrontations where they may have no choice but to shoot.
"A lot of cities have foot-pursuit policies, and they save lives," he said. "Really, it's an officer-safety issue."
Despite Green-Ceisler's report, the department has not instituted a policy, though officers receive training on foot chases.
In September, a federal judge ruled that a jury potentially could find the city "deliberately indifferent" for not setting guidelines.
"Foot pursuits are hardly uncommon for a police force serving a city as large and populous as Philadelphia," wrote U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel. "Accepting this statement as true, the failure to provide a policy . . . could be considered an apparent or obvious omission."
Through a department spokesman, Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said he had no plans to create a policy. While a model policy is available, experts can't say how many cities have adopted it.
Lt. Frank Vanore, the department spokesman, said chasing down fleeing suspects was part of the job, and Ramsey did not want to take that discretion away from officers.
