PhillyTablet Inquirer Daily News
Mobile
Home Delivery
philly.com
email
font size
comments
2
options
 
Thursday, February 26, 2009

Cop wounded, suspect dead

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.


His body, covered with a white sheet, lay on the sidewalk in front of a two-story, red-brick rowhouse. Roxanne Neal, who said she is Robinson’s aunt, described him to reporters while walking to her car. “He’s a beautiful boy,” she said. “He deals with everybody in the community. He’s a beautiful, young, beautiful boy.” Police recovered the weapon they said had been used to shoot Ford. Mayor Nutter and police brass, including Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross, visited Ford at Temple University Hospital. He was surrounded by his wife and children — 10-year-old twins, a 16-year-old and a 21-year-old, Ross said.


Nutter expressed his relief: “I’ve been to this scene too many times over the past 14 months or so and the outcome has been very different. So, we’re very grateful that the officer is on his way to recovery.” Earlier yesterday, city residents rallied for community healing at two events. In Logan, about 100 men — wearing black blindfolds and walking hand in hand — gathered for a faith march that began at Broad Street and Olney Avenue, where Pawlowski was shot, and ended at the 35th District headquarters at Broad Street and Champlost AvenueAnd in Center City, about 45 archdiocesan students from St. Mary Interparochial, St. Francis Xavier Parish and Hallahan High presented Ramsey with some of the 20,000 letters of gratitude they had written to police.
Posted by Dafney Tales @ 11:35 PM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:57 PM, 02/27/2009
    The aunt's description "beautiful young beautiful boy" is amazing. This is someone who shot at a cop and had prior arrests for crying out loud. I would really hate to see what this idiot woman considers not beautiful.
    — The_Unknown-Poster
  • Comment removed.


2 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.

---

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.

---

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.

--

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.

Follow on Twitter

Share your tips

To send news tips, breaking news pictures or other thoughts to the Philly Confidential team, email phillyconfidential@phillynews.com.
Advertise Here