U. Darby cop, hit, fires back & collars assailant

Marvin Marmolejos, the alleged drug dealer charged with shooting a highly decorated Upper Darby cop four times early yesterday morning, doesn't regret pulling the trigger, police said.

He just wishes he'd used a bigger gun.

"In the hospital right now, he's still talking about killing cops!" police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said of Marmolejos, who was involved in a close-range shoot-out with Officer Ray Blohm about 12:30 a.m. near Copley Road and Ludlow Street in the 69th Street area.

"He's saying that he wished he had access to an AK-47 so that he could have killed all the cops," Chitwood said.

Blohm, 31, was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon and was sleeping at his Aldan home, according to his family.

The 10-year veteran confronted Marmolejos in a neighborhood of high drug activity behind Brownie's Pub because he had an open container of alcohol and appeared to be smoking marijuana, Chitwood said.

When Marmolejos, 27, refused to stop, Chitwood said, Blohm warned him that he would be Tasered. Police said that Marmolejos was in possession of crack cocaine, four bags of marijuana and a scale, and that he pulled a .22-caliber revolver from his waistband and opened fire on Blohm, a married father of two young girls and member of the SWAT team.

As he sought cover, Blohm was struck twice in the lower back below his bulletproof vest - fracturing a veterbra in his spine - and once on his vest. A bullet also grazed his thumb and broke his police radio, yet he was able to return fire with his semiautomatic .45-caliber, hitting Marmolejos in the shoulder, calf, forearm and lower back, Chitwood said.

"He lost all communication with the police because one of the bullets that was fired severed the wire that leads to the radio on his mic," Chitwood said. "What he did to call for help, he grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket and called 9-1-1."

Assisting officers found Blohm kneeling on Copley Road, holding Marmolejos at gunpoint after a foot pursuit.

"Even though he was shot, he chased him," Chitwood said.

Marmolejos, who has prior arrests for narcotics possession and robbery, was charged with attempted murder and related counts and is being held on $1 million bail.

He is expected to survive and was waiting yesterday to be transported from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to the Delaware County Prison.

"I had to shoot him. I had drugs on me," Marmolejos told paramedics, according to the criminal complaint.

Blohm has received 20 commendations in his career and was the Upper Darby-Lansdowne Rotary Club's 2008 officer of the year.

For Upper Darby Mayor Tom Micozzie, the early-morning phone call he received after Blohm was shot triggered memories of Officer Dennis McNamara, a township police officer who was killed in 2002 when an outlaw biker shot him in the head.

"The call that you get is the worst call that you can ever imagine," Micozzie said.

"He's very lucky," said Chitwood, who expects that Blohm would be able to return to work after he recovers.

"He still has movement. He's alert, he's up and he's talking," Chitwood said. "He's very appreciative of life now. If he wasn't before, he certainly is now."