Posted on Sat, May. 3, 2008
Phila. police officer shot to death
By Barbara Boyer, Mari Schaefer and Dwight Ott
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
A Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed with a military assault rifle late this morning when he confronted at least two robbers who had just held up a Bank of America branch at a Shoprite supermarket in Port Richmond.
Another officer, responding to a “flash” that had been broadcast on police radio, ran into the robbers at Schiller and Almond streets and shot one of them dead, officials said.
One, perhaps two, of the robbers remained at large late this afternoon as hundreds of police officers searched a wide swath of the city looking for bandits and their getaway car.
“This is a tragedy for the entire City of Philadelphia,” Mayor Nutter told a reporter outside of Temple University Hospital, where the slain officer was taken.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey identified the slain officer as Stephen Liczbinski, 40, a 12-year police veteran assigned to the 24th District in Port Richmond who recently had been promoted to sergeant.
Liczbinski’s wife, Michelle, and their three children — Matt, Steven and Amber — were escorted into the hospital by police officials.
At 11:26 a.m., police received a report of a robbery at the American Bank at 3547 Aramingo Avenue. There was no immediate word on the details of the robbery.
Police weren’t certain if there were two robbers or three.
Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, described one as a man wearing “Muslim garb” and carrying a shoulder bag.
He said that a second, who might have been a woman, was wearing “light brown Muslim garb.”
A third possible robber, a man, was described as having worn a “dreadlock wig” and a “construction mask.” He had on blue jeans and a flannel shirt.
Liczbinski ran into the robbers sometime after they fled the bank. Officials said the weapon used to kill him may have been an AK-47 style assault rifle, used by numerous armies and insurgent groups around the world.
A short distance from the bank, at Schiller and Almond streets, a canine-unit officer encountered the getway vehicle. Shots were fired, and one of the robbers was fatally wounded. Police officers no immediate details on what happened.
“That’s all we have at this moment,” Ramsey said in a news conference with Nutter at his side.
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