In their third confrontation with an allegedly armed suspect that ended in gunfire in about 24 hours, police shot and wounded a man in North Philadelphia Thursday night.
Police were in the area of 23rd and Oxford streets around 9:45 p.m. when they heard gunfire and then spotted a man running on Oxford Street toward 24th with a gun in his hand, Chief Inspector Scott Small said. The officers exited their patrol car and ordered the 21-year-old man to drop the gun several times, but the man refused to do so, and instead ran toward them, with the gun pointed in their direction, Small said. The officers opened fire, wounding the man in his lower body.
The man was taken by medics to Hahnemann University Hospital and listed in stable condition. Small said police recovered a loaded and cocked semiautomatic handgun he’d been carrying at the scene, and they found ballistic evidence of gunfire believed to have come from his gun around the corner on 24th Street.
Two men were shot and killed by police in separate shootings Wednesday night.
The first incident was on Wyalusing Avenue near 65th Street in West Philadelphia. Police responded to the area for a report of two males with guns shortly before 6:30 p.m. According to Chief Inspector Scott Small, arriving officers spotted the suspects, who then fled on foot. As officers gave chase, one suspect was struck by a car, but recovered and allegedly pointed a gun at the officers. The officers fired and struck the suspect once in the chest, Small said.
Police recovered a fully-loaded Glock .9mm near the suspect, Small said.
Booted from a Southwest Philadelphia strip club by bouncers the in the wee hours of the morning May 11, police say a man came back with an AK-47 rifle looking for revenge and shot up the club, wounding one person.
In video of the shooting released Wednesday, the gunman, identified by police as Henry Pettigrew, 21, can be seen running through the parking lot carrying the rifle, falling once before entering the Purple Orchid Gentlemen's Club, on 61st Street near Passyunk Avenue, and then slipping and falling again once he gets inside. When he rights himself, he levels the gun and fires several shots into the club.
Police said one person suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the shooting. After the shooting, police said, Pettigrew jumped into a light-colored sedan -- possibly a Hyundai or Mitsubishi -- and took off. Cops are looking for both Pettigrew and the man who drove the getaway car.
Four years after their two-year-old son died because they declined to seek medical treatment, a Northeast Philadelphia faith-healing couple has been charged with third-degree murder in the death of their seven-month-old son.
Herbert and Catherine Schaible are accused of not getting treatment for their seven-month-old son, Brandon Scott Schaible -- choosing instead to pray over him -- when he became sick last month and eventually died April 18. The couple was already on probation after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of two-year-old, Kent.
In announcing the murder charge, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said the parents disobeyed the conditions of their probation requiring them to get medical attention and follow medical advice if any of their children were sick.
Philly police have successfully launched a new city law aimed at clearing illegal ATV riders and dirt-bikers out of public parks and streets, but the "bike life" trend has proven persistently deadly regionally, with at least four fatal wrecks in the past 14 months.
Police impounded 26 ATVs and dirt bikes through Monday and issued 57 citations through May 7 (more recent figures are unavailable due to a paperwork lag), under a law first enforced April 6 that stiffens penalties for illegal riders, police data shows.
Riders historically have hit the streets in droves as the weather warms, many eschewing helmets as they wheelie and speed through favorite spots like the Belmont Plateau and Hunting Park. Citizens' worries about their dangerous maneuvers have proven justified: A dirt-biker left a 5-year-old in Hunting Park with a broken collarbone and ribs on May 5 after he lost control and plowed into the child as he stood in a grassy area waiting to climb into his mother's car. The biker then fled.
UPDATE: Police on Thursday said the investigation into this homicide has revealed that the shooting originated on Stenton Avenue near Gorgas Lane several blocks away. The victim ran from the original location of the shooting and collapsed near Stenton and Haines, according to police.
Police have identified the man killed last night in front of a West Oak Lane water-ice shop as Marquine Pickett, 19, of Carroll Park.
Police listed the motive as robbery but reported no suspects.
A man was fatally shot near a Rita's Water Ice in West Oak Lane Tuesday night, according to police.
Police were called to Stenton Avenue near Haines Street around 9:30 p.m., where they found the victim suffering a gunshot wound to the chest in front of the water-ice shop, according to investigators. Cops rushed him to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The 19-year-old remained unidentified late Tuesday. Police were looking for a white Chevy Impala seen leaving the scene, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.
Police are hunting the gunmen who killed one man and critically wounded another in separate overnight incidents in Feltonville and North Philadelphia.
In the homicide, someone shot Mark Thomas, 25, of Uber Street near Montgomery Avenue in North Philly, multiple times on his block just before 11 p.m. last night, police spokeswoman Officer Tanya Little said. He died at Temple University Hospital at 11:30 p.m., Little said.
Just after 1 a.m. this morning, a gunman shot an 18-year-old man in the neck, thigh and foot just outside a Chinese restaurant on Rorer Street near Wyoming Avenue in Feltonville, Little said. He remains in critical condition at Temple.
Police were investigating the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old man late Monday night.
Officers responded to Uber Street near Montgomery Avenue in North Philadelphia just before 10:45 p.m. and found the victim suffering from gunshot wounds to the chest, buttocks and back, Chief Inspector Scott Small said. Police took him to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:30 p.m.
Investigators found at least five spent shell casings that appeared to come from a .45-caliber handgun at the scene, police said. Small said a car with the driver's window shot out and blood about 75 feet from the car in a courtyard where the victim ran and collapsed marked the scene.
Police are investigating a report of sexual misconduct involving a first-grade student at John Barry Elementary in West Philadelphia, authorities said.
Police were called Monday afternoon to the school, located at 59th and Race Streets. Capt. John Darby, head of the Special Victims Unit, said preliminary reports indicate that a male student was assaulted by two other male students this morning. He said the three students involved were all under age 10.
Darby could not provide details on the nature of the assault. He emphasized that the information was preliminary because investigators had not yet interviewed the alleged victim due to his age.
