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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Philadelphia police officer shot dead in Logan

Gun violence claimed the life of Officer John Pawlowski last night, making him the sixth Philadelphia police officer to be killed in the line of duty in the last 16 months.
Pawlowski, 25, was shot several times at 8:20 p.m. by a “thug” who was harrassing a “hack” cab driver in Logan, said Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey. He died about 20 minutes later at Albert Einstein Medical Center.
Ramsey said Pawlowski, whose father and brother are both Philly cops, was expecting his first child with his wife, Kim, who is five months pregnant.
Ramsey said the gunman had frightened the cabbie and asked how much money he was carrying. When the cabbie threatened to call police, the suspect said, “You call the police, and I’ll shoot you and the police,” Ramsey said.
When Pawlowski and his partner arrived at Broad and Olney streets, they repeatedly asked the suspect to remove his hands from his pockets.
Ramsey said the suspect fired one shot through a coat he was wearing and continued to fire. Pawlowski was wounded several times. Pawlowski’s partner shot back, as did other officers who arrived at the scene, Ramsey said.
Ramsey said the gunman was critically wounded but was operated on at Albert Einstein Medical Center and was expected to survive.
Chaos reigned at the hospital last night.
A frantic family member arrived and asked cops who were directing traffic: “Where do I go? Where do I go?” She then darted into the emergency room at the back of the hospital.
Sources said Pawlowski’s pregnant wife, who was hysterical, had an unltrasound performed on her to ensure the safety of the child.
Pawlowski’s father is a retired lieutenant with the Special Victims Unit. Sources said his brother, Robert, is a police corporal who was working in the radio room last night. A state police helicopter was sent to Wildwood, N.J., to pick up Pawlowski’s sister, sources said.
Outside the hospital, cruisers lined Broad Street as police cordoned off the area to traffic. Two blocks up at Broad and Olney, not far from 35th District headquarters, where Pawlowski was stationed, yellow evidence markers littered the ground and atop what appeared to be the Pawlowski’s cruiser.
In the shadow of a SEPTA station and the Philadelphia High School for Girls, dozens of cops stood at the spot where they lost another one of their own last night.
Rhonda Hill, who was standing at 15th and Olney streets, watched the array of flashing police lights and grim-faced detectives.
“A lot of them seemed to be walking around dazed like they couldn’t believe what happened,” said Hill, who like many other residents, streamed out of the surrounding houses when they hear the commotion.
“This is a disgrace that police officers are out here every day risking their lives protecting us, and they have to deal with something like this,” she said. “There’s no respect in this city any more for human life.”
Traffic was snarled for several blocks south and east of the scene last night.
A hearse with Givnish Funeral Home, which has handled the wakes for all five officers killed recently on duty, slowly rode by the scene, most likely on its way to the hospital.
Last June, Pawlowski heroically fought off an armed man on a SEPTA bus near Broad Street and 66th Avenue. Police said at the time that Sorrell Graves, a convicted drug dealer, was carrying a gun on the bus. Pawlowski jumped on board after an exiting passenger tipped him off; Pawlowski pulled the gun out of Graves' waistband, and both men tumbled out of the bus during an ensuing struggle. Another cop helped Pawlowski arrest Graves.
A reporter asked Ramsey last night if the suspect was also a cabbie. "No," Ramsey replied. "The suspect was just a thug."

UPDATE 2/16: "Two months pregnant" corrected to "five months pregnant."

Posted by David Gambacorta @ 12:17 AM Permalink | 95 comments

Comments

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:46 AM, 02/14/2009

This has got to stop. Good men are dying. Bad men still roam the streets. My thoughts are with Pawlowski's family.

— DrexelDragonFan

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:54 AM, 02/14/2009

Thats enough. Lets bring in....Sheriff Joe. Thats right I said it. Sheriff Joe. Joseph M. Arpaio. The "toughest Sheriff in America" I'm tired of this non sense. Wheres Rizzo? Ethics? Who cares now. Cops are getting shot. Innocent people are dying. Kids are dying. Its got to stop.

— ASU5830

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:54 AM, 02/14/2009

— ASU5830

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:19 AM, 02/14/2009

"they repeatedly asked the suspect to remove his hands from his pockets", Police should be allowed to shoot someone in the leg if they can't see their hands. Cops always have to be defensive these days, and not what they need to be, which is offensive, because of public outcry. I can hear it now, if these cops had shot this guy they would have found some mor*n to say "he was just standing there with his hands in his pockets, and they shot him, sure he had a gun but that doesn't mean he was gonna use it." The media always find a mor*n to make it a story. So sad that the good guys die. Something has to change in this age of litigation. We all know if a cop screws up, the city will be sued. So cops have to take a hundred precautions before thinking about themselves.

— tfarnath

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:29 AM, 02/14/2009

This has got to be more than a social problem...

— ruddjb

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:45 AM, 02/14/2009

The problem is that cops can't do their jobs without fear of being sued or fired...It's a joke...These animals continue to roam the streets and they have more rights than anyone. Here's the solution...if the m-f'er doesn't take his hands out of his coat, shoot him...between the eyes. Better to bury a drug-dealing, welfare-collecting, non-tax paying crackhead, than a brave police officer.

— majrladyr

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:46 AM, 02/14/2009

Canadians....

— JayB

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:37 AM, 02/14/2009

I thought Obama was going to bring change and peace and harmony to all the thugs? Philly needs a city wide sweep of all the thugs. Gun down these animals one by one . If a street corner is loaded with thugs just spray them all with bullets.

— tsoprano

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:56 AM, 02/14/2009

My god. Call me a racist. But look at the cops being killed and look who is kiling them. Where is Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. If one of these thugs were beat up, they would be here with the parade and all. Can they come here now and fight for the rights of these officers to live. I would stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone for the right of equality. But it is time that the truth is faced.

— shortpat81

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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.

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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