An Amber Alert was issued last night after a custody dispute ended in gunfire in West Philadelphia and the triggerman fled with his 3-year-old daughter, police said.
Adam Johnson, 24, apparently got into a heated argument with the mother of his daughter, Amber Johnson, on Osage Avenue near 59th Street at about 7:30 p.m., said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives.
Johnson fired several shots during the argument, one of which grazed the face of little Amber’s 6-month-old sister, who was inside her mother's house. The baby was treated at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

At about 11 p.m., police  found little Amber alive and well in the Lansdowne, Pa., home of Johnson's girlfriend, Walker said. Johnson fled his girlfriend's home after he saw a TV news report about the shooting. Johnson, of Belmont Avenue near Westminster, is wanted on charges that include aggravated assault, recklessly endangering the welfare of another person and weapons violations.  Anyone with information can contact police at 215-686-3183.
 

Another street corner, another cop under fire. Less than a week after slain Police Officer John Pawlowski was laid to rest, a shoot-out erupted between police and a man yesterday in North Philadelphia, leaving the man dead and a detective hospitalized with a leg wound. The violence unfolded the same day that Rasheed Scruggs — the career criminal accused of gunning down Pawlowski on Feb. 13 in Logan — was transferred from Albert Einstein Medical Center to the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. Scruggs had been hospitalized since officers shot him after he had fatally wounded Pawlowski. Police shackled Scruggs, 33, with Pawlowski’s handcuffs, and officers from the 35th District — where Pawlowski worked — escorted him to jail. Then, about noon yesterday, funeral-weary police again heard the dreaded call on their radios: Officer down. On Indiana Avenue near Warnock Street, Detective Albert Ford, a sergeant on the Violent Crimes Task Force, and his partner went to the house of Kevin Robinson, 25, to serve an arrest warrant, said Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman.

Robinson was armed when he opened the door, and he and Ford struggled. Robinson broke away and ran out the door, turning as he ran to fire a Kel-Tec .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol at the officers, said Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross. Robinson fired at least three shots, striking Ford, 42, a 20-year veteran, in the upper left leg, Ross said.
The officers returned fire, striking Robinson several times, killing him, Vanore said. Robinson — who had been arrested eight times for robbery, aggravated assault and related offenses — had been wanted on a warrant for the shooting last year of his ex-girlfriend’s uncle, Ross said. Authorities tracked down Robinson after he responded to a police sting in which detectives in December sent a letter to fugitives asking them to call in to claim money purportedly owed to them, said police sources. Yesterday afternoon at Indiana Avenue and 11th Street, about a half block from the shooting scene, family members of Robinson consoled one another as word spread of his death.

»  More Cop wounded, suspect dead

Students from the Philadelphia Academy Charter School made a $3,000 donation earlier today to the Fraternal Order of Police's Survivors Fund, said FOP vice president John McGrody. The money was raised by students who wanted to take part in a planned dress-down day at the school, located on Roosevelt Boulevard near Haldeman Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia. McGrody said the fund, which helps to meet the needs of families of fallen Philadelphia police officers, has been stretched thin by the rash of cop murders during the past three years.

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A familiar call went out over police scanners earlier today: Officer down.

Detective Albert Ford Jr. was shot while serving an arrest warrant in North Philadelphia, less than a week after Officer John Pawlowski was laid to rest. Luckily for Ford and a Police Department still reeling from the murders of Pawlowski and six other cops in the past three years, his injuries weren't fatal.

Ford, a 20-year veteran assigned to the Major Crimes Unit, and another cop went to a house near Germantown and Indiana Avenues looking for Kevin Robinson, who was wanted for a prior shooting, police said.

Robinson opened the door and then ran back inside the house when he spotted the cops. At one point, he turned and fired, wounding Ford in the upper thigh, police said. The other officer returned fire, striking Robinson, who collapsed and died on the ground outside. Ford was taken to Temple University Hospital in stable condition, where he was later joined by his wife and four children.

Pawlowski, 25, was fatally shot on Feb. 13 at Broad and Olney streets when he and his partner tried to help a hack cab driver. Pawlowski's alleged killer, Rasheed Scruggs, was also wounded during an ensuing shoot-out with police that night. He was released from Albert Einstein Medical Center earlier today and taken to a local prison.

Members of the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force and Philadelphia Police Department captured a suspected local bank robber in Bensalem on Tuesday. Charles Thompson, 37, was charged with robbing a Bank of America on Clarendon Avenue near Knights Road in Northeast Philadelphia on Feb. 5, said FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver.

Thompson was identified with the help of Daily News readers, who recognized him from surveillance images published in the paper, Klaver noted.

Kudos to the eagle-eyed DN readers!

A survey conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Research Initiative found many residents are more worried about crime than the country's sinking economy.

Of the 1,600 residents who were included in the survey, 45 percent said crime or violence was their least favorite aspect of living in Philadelphia. Some 37 percent said they don't feel safe in their own neighborhoods, while 36 percent cited crime as the number one factor that could force them to move elsewhere. On the plus side, 55 percent of those surveyed said they were satisfied with the level of police protection provided by the city.

To view the rest of the survey, click here.

Narcotics cops on Tuesday arrested William Morgan, 85, who allegedly sold drugs out of Mr. B's Bar, on 6th Street near Moyamensing Avenue in South Philly. The officers set up surveillance of the bar after a murder occurred outside the watering hole on Feb. 21. Narcotics Capt. Debra Frazier said investigators observed Morgan, a bartender, sell drugs to a confidential informant.

Police found 12 grams of heroin, 1 gram of crack, two poker machines and a 12-gauge shotgun inside the bar. Morgan (pictured, with awesome hair) was charged with possession with intent to deliver and related offenses.

When Deborah Proctor saw a 12-year-old boy lying on the sidewalk, blood oozing from a gunshot wound to his chest, she feared he was one of her students. But the boy, who police say has a record for narcotics offenses, was the intended target of an afternoon shooting at 61st and Spruce streets in West Philadelphia yesterday. “Looking at his face I could these faces,” said Proctor, an after-school instructor, pointing toward the group of rambuctious youth who filled the corridor in the center she runs near the scene of the shooting. It just rips my heart apart.”

Police said the victim was sitting in the front passenger seat of his mother’s car, while she picked up his sister, when an unknown shooter walked up and fired five rounds into the vehicle about 3:30, police said. The youth was struck in the left hand and chest. Moments later, his mother ran after the gunman, who tucked the gun in his waistband, and fled on 60th Street, police said. She lost track of him about a block away, and ran inside a daycare center for help. “The bloodcurdling screams of the mother...I will never forget it,” said Monica Mason, who was inside the center when she heard the gunshots and screams. When the gunshots rang out, Proctor — whose center houses both a computer training program for adults and an after-school program — said she and the kids fell to the floor and covered their heads. She then ran outside, down the block, toward the crowd gathering around the wounded boy, who lay outside the vehicle. “You could see him struggling [to breathe],” she said. “He was so scared. Neighbors were trying to stop the blood. His eyes glazed over and people were screaming for him to hold on. Regardless what that boy did, he didn’t have to experience that.”

The boy was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where he underwent more than two hours of surgery, said Chief Inspector Scott Small. He’s now listed in critical but stable condition. Police sources said the mother of the victim denies her son’s involvement in drugs, although authorities say the shooting may have been drug-related. But Proctor worries that more violence will come out of this. “I saw two young boys walk up and look at the boy’s face and say, ‘Yo, that’s my cousin! They shot my cousin!’ and they ran off,” she said. She said she fears a retaliation shooting. She said she’ll keep working to help others from getting hurt. “Something has to happen to stop this senseless violence,” she said. “I felt motivated by President Obama and I thought everyone else was motivated. It seems so hopeless, but I refuse to give up.”

Anyone with information, contact Southwest Detectives at 215-686-3183, 84.

Like millions of other Americans, Philadelphia Highway Patrol Officer Richard Decoatsworth watched President Obama’s historic economic address earlier tonight.
Unlike millions of other Americans, however, Decoatsworth shared an armrest for the evening with First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden.
Decoatsworth was among 24 special guests — including governors, mayors and wounded war veterans — who sat in the First Lady’s box, perched above the congressional chambers.
The primo seat was a huge honor for the 23-year-old cop, who received an unexpected invitation on Monday from Vice President Joe Biden’s office to attend Obama’s speech.
Decoatsworth (pictured at Crime Commission award ceremony) earned the invitation for the staggering bravery he showed on Sept. 24, 2007, when he suffered a shotgun blast to the face during a traffic stop in Southwest Philadelphia, according to a White House press release.
Decoatsworth, who was just a rookie cop at the time, managed to chase after the suspect and relay a detailed description over his radio before he finally collapsed to the ground in a bloody heap.
The gunman, Antonio Coulter, was captured that day and later sentenced to 36 to 72 years in prison. Decoatsworth returned to the force several months later.
Highway Patrol Capt. Michael Cochrane said that Vice President Biden had apparently followed stories about Decoatsworth’s injury and recovery on the Internet. Still, no one expected the young officer to end up sitting next to the First Lady.
“It was short notice, that’s for sure,” said Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey. “It’s a great opportunity for him to be in the chambers of the House and actually see the address as it takes place.”
Decoatsworth, who could not be reached by phone, is expected to return home tomorrow.