Cops: Officer shoots driver who tried to run him down

Two brazen men, accused of stealing another man's motorcycle, are in custody tonight, police said.

And one of them is sporting a gunshot wound after allegedly trying to mow down two plainclothes police officers who pulled him over.

Just before 5:30 p.m., the officers were investigating the theft of the motorcylce, whose owner was trying to buy it back from its alleged thieves, said police spokesman Lt. John Stanford.

According to investigators, the two men contacted the motorcylce's owner about buying it from him, then stole it during a meeting with him a few days ago, said Stanford.

The owner, who still had the theives' contact information, had approached police and helped them lure the thieves to the parking lot of a Little Ceasar's at Island Avenue and Elmwood Avenue in Southwest Philly

When two officers attempted to arrest the alleged theives in the parking lot tonight, all hell broke loose.

One of the men jumped into the driver's seat of the red Ford sedan the duo had been driving in and threw the car into reverse, apparently trying to hit the officers, said Stanford.

One of the officers fired his gun at the vehicle, which sped away. A few minutes later, investigators spotted it at 56th and Wheeler streets, and the officers involved in the initial confrontation positively identified its driver as the one who tried to hit them, Stanford said.

That driver, 27, had been shot once in the arm. He was taken by police to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in stable condition.

His buddy, a 30-year-old man who remained at the scene of the initial fight, was also taken into custody, Stanford said.

The officer who fired his gun will be placed on administrative duty, pending the outcome of Internal Affairs' investigation into the incident, per police protocol. Neither of the officers was injured during the scuffle.

The incident was the second police-involved shooting of the day, following a confrontation in Strawberry Mansion between a uniformed officer and a suspect in the shooting of a 19-year-old man.