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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Cop escapes possible shooting

Residents in a humble Port Richmond witnessed a rare scene on their block yesterday when a confrontation between two cops and two suspects, left one bad guy with a bullet in his stomach and a cop banged up.

Two 24th District cops responding to a call of an armed man, encountered two men in a red Pontiac van parked near Clearfield and Memphis streets, police said. When the cops, from the 24th District, with headquarters at Whitaker Avenue near Erie, approached the vehicle, the suspects drove off and crashed into a tree a short distance away. Moments later, the passenger, identified by police as Israel Perez, tried to flee, but the responding officer caught up to him, and the two struggled over the officer’s gun, said spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore. During the struggle, rounds in gun’s magazine fell to the ground, but as the suspect tried to grab the weapon, a bullet in the chamber discharged, striking Perez him in the abdomen, said Vanore. The suspect was listed in stable condition at Temple University Hospital . The officer wasn’t injured. Meanwhile, the other officer was chasing the driver of the van, identified as Ronald Williams, whom he caught soon after. Williams was treated for a minor head injury that police say he incurred during the pursuit, and was released into police custody. The officer who had chased him was treated for a knee injury.

Police later found what they said was a large quantity of cocaine on top of a nearby garage roof onto which the suspects had thrown during the chase. The suspects were charged with aggravated assault, drug possession and related offenses, said police, who did not disclose their ages or addresses. Perez had two outstanding warrants for prior drug-related offenses. Vanore credited the quick thinking of the officer who held on to his gun — who is on administrative duty pending an Internal Affairs investigation — with averting a potentially tragic outcome. “His training kicked in,” he said. “He was able to keep [the weapon].”
Posted by Dafney Tales @ 11:54 PM  Permalink | 4 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:25 AM, 10/08/2008
    Good job!
    — walterrhett
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:16 PM, 10/08/2008
    Thank God for sparing these officers and thanks to the PPD for the training that saved them. Israel Perez, what is that guy even doing out of prison? He should NEVER have made bail, and the police union and police families have to complain publicly about just this sort of thing. Israel Perez is a known large level Philly drug dealer with many mentions in the news. Are the judges going to allow Perez to bail out again, because it's "just" a drug offense, and let him plead down the assault on cop and fleeing charges, etc.? If the press doesn't carefully follow and report on the progress (I mean deterioration) of these cases, these very bad guys walk right back out to spread evil, misery, addiction, and mayhem. PA needs more prison space, period.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:19 PM, 10/08/2008
    This is why "early release" for "drug offenders" is not going to work. The people plead out of the violent charges, get charged with drugs, get bail, walk out, never show for their court date, get a "nonviolent" offender bench warrant, and meanwhile move tons of drugs and continue to flee from officers, engage in violent behavior, that then gets pled down, rinse, repeat. THIS IS DUMB. This is STUPID. This is Philly and PA unless the Police Union and families start to really complain and demand accountability from the mayor and the governor.
    — CleanupPhilly


4 comments
About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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