'No sense at all. None'

THERE IS a hole in Manuel Dias' newsstand.

The hole isn't as big as those left in the 35th District or in the city's heart in the wake of Officer John Pawlowski's death, but it is emblematic of both.

Dias' newsstand is mere feet from where Pawlowski, 25, was slain about 8:15 p.m. Friday in the city's Logan section by a man police identified as Rasheed Scrugs, 33, a "cold-blooded killer" with a criminal past.

The hole in Dias' newsstand is from one of the six shots fired by Scrugs' .357 Magnum that night, he said.

"In a civilized country people don't do things like that," Dias said. "Normal human being can't just kill like that."

Dias, a native of Sao Tome and Principe, an island off the coast of Western Africa, has operated his stand on the corner of Broad Street and Olney Avenue for about 15 years.

He was jolted in his stand Friday night when someone was violently pushed against the glass.

"I heard one guy say 'How much you make?' and I heard the other guy say 'I don't have to tell you how much I make,' " Dias said.

The struggle, which would eventually lead to Pawlowski's death, was between a hack cabbie and Scrugs, who was allegedly attempting to rob him.

Police said that the cabbie threatened to call 9-1-1, which prompted Scrugs to retort that he'd kill the cabbie and any police who responded to the scene.

Dias said that he heard those fateful words, too.

"He said 'If you call police, I shoot you plus the police.' "

Within minutes, Dias said, he heard police arrive and ask Scrugs to take his hand from his pocket.

"He just immediately started shooting," Dias said.

Police said that Scrugs shot at Pawlowski and other responding officers through a pocket in his black, three-quarter length coat, never even giving them a chance to see the gun.

Pawlowski's vest stopped one of the bullets, but the bullet that took his life entered his upper chest, above his protective vest.

Two other officers on the scene were not injured.

"I heard 'Please help, help, help,' " Dias said. "I heard someone say 'I just need help.' "

Pawlowski - whose wife, Kim, is five months pregnant with their first child - was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:44 p.m.

When the shots began, Dias fell to the floor of his cramped newsstand and kept the door locked until backup officers arrived.

When he opened the door, "bullets were all over" the base of his newsstand, he said.

Dias said that the well-lit corner, which is across the street from the Olney Transportation Center, is often filled with hack cabbies looking for a fare.

It's also notorious for violent crime, he said. In his 15 years at the location, he's been robbed numerous times and has seen two other murders - one prompted by robbery and the other prompted by drugs, he said. He didn't think it was possible that murder could be committed for anything less senseless, until Friday.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey echoed those sentiments at a Saturday press conference.

"We're just deeply, deeply saddened that we've lost another officer who was murdered on our streets," Ramsey said. "And it just makes absolutely no sense at all. None."

Scrugs was allegedly in possession of 19 additional rounds of ammunition and 19 packets of crack cocaine when he was transported to Albert Einstein Medical Center after being shot once by Pawlowkski and several times by other officers at the scene. He remains at the hospital in critical condition.

Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl said there is no record that the gun Scrugs used was stolen but he said an additional trace on the weapon by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would take a few days.

Scrugs, of Marvine Street near Rockland, North Philadelphia, has nine prior arrests, according to police and court records. His most notable conviction was for a 1997 robbery for which he received a five-to-ten year state prison sentence, Homicide Capt. James Clark said.

He was released in 2002, but violated his parole in 2004 and was remanded to prison for an additional year, Clark said. Scrugs was scheduled for a hearing this week on a September case involving unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and receiving stolen property, court records indicate.

"These guys should not be among us period. Lock 'em up, throw away the key, build another prison, don't let 'em out," Ramsey said.

"There are some people who are just not salvageable. Period. And he's one of them."

Pawlowski, a five-year veteran of the force, had asked to be reassigned to the 35th District because his previous post at the 6th District was "too slow," Ramsey said.

Just last Wednesday, he was commended for wrestling a gun away from an armed man on a SEPTA bus in June.

Pawlowski's father, John Sr., is a retired police lieutenant and his brother, Robert, was on duty Friday night as a corporal in the radio room.

Last night, plans were announced for memorial services for Pawlowski, beginning with a community Mass at 7:30 tonight at St. Anselm's Roman Catholic Church, 12670 Dunks Ferry Road in Philadelphia.

A viewing will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday at the John F. Givnich Funeral Home, 10975 Academy Road. Services will be Friday at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter & Paul, 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, with a viewing from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at noon and internment at Resurrection Cemetery in Bensalem.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the "P/O John Pawlowski Family Trust," 1336 Spring Garden St., Phila., PA 19123. Donations may also be dropped off at any branch of the Police and Fire Federal Credit Union or Philadelphia Federal Credit Union.

Citizens at a prayer vigil at the scene yesterday lamented that Pawlowski is the sixth officer killed in the line of duty in the last 16 months, and the second from the 35th District.

"I just felt that with them in our community we were safe," Joyce Gordon-Moody, a 35th District resident said of Pawlowski and his fellow slain 35th District officer, Chuck Cassidy. "But now, we're seeing them being taken away from us one by one." *