Undercover policeman describes triple shooting

An undercover police officer yesterday testified that he witnessed the triple shooting that preceded the arrests and beating of three suspects by Philadelphia police.

Carlos Buitrago said he was crouched in the backseat of an unmarked police car May 5, 2008, just before a shootout erupted at Fourth and Annsbury Streets in the city's Feltonville section.

Dwayne Dyches, Brian Hall, and Pete Hopkins are charged with attempted murder and other counts in the crime, which left three people wounded.

Buitrago said it was 9:50 p.m. and he was conducting surveillance on a group of four people hanging out on the northwest corner of the intersection. Buitrago, in a car parked 50 feet away on the southeast corner, suspected that the group might be dealing drugs.

Then a tan Mercury Marquis drove north on Fourth Street and came to a stop, he said.

Dyches, Hall, and Hopkins got out of the car and were joined by two other men and two women as they approached the group on the corner, Buitrago said.

Buitrago said he heard one of the women say "That [expletive] is crazy!" before Hopkins pulled out an object, stepped into the street, and opened fire on the group on the corner.

"I saw the muzzle flash . . . and heard 8 to 10 shots in rapid succession," Buitrago said.

Despite the late hour, the undercover officer said he could clearly see the gunman and his friends, lit by a streetlamp.

"I could see their faces and the whites of their eyes and their lips moving," he said.

Dyches, Hall, and Hopkins ran back to the parked Marquis as two other men darted into a nearby alleyway, he said.

Buitrago said he immediately sent out a radio "flash" alerting nearby officers to the shooting and the descriptions of the men.

Minutes later, after a 21/2- mile pursuit by unmarked and marked police cars, the Marquis came to a stop at Second and Pike Streets.

Uniformed officers dragged Dyches, Hall, and Hopkins from the vehicle, and kicked and battered them as a Fox29 news helicopter taped it from above.

That video resulted in the firing of four officers and the demotion of four others.

The arrests occurred two days after the May 3 slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinsky, at a time when police were searching for a bank robber wanted in the killing.

In her cross-examination yesterday, Hopkins' defense attorney, Mary Maran, questioned Buitrago's powers of observation.

She asked whether Buitrago might have mistaken Dyches, who sports a small goatee, with the wanted cop killer, who had similar facial hair.

She noted that the Marquis had traveled north on southbound Fourth Street and said he had neglected to mention it in his report.

She pointed out several small inconsistencies Buitrago made on separate reports. On one statement to investigators, Buitrago had said four men got out of the Marquis before the shooting started, Maran said. Later in the report, Buitrago said one of the suspects was 5-foot-8, rather than 5-foot-10 as he stated elsewhere.

Buitrago answered her gamely, as jurors appeared to lose interest in the details of Maran's persistent questioning.