Phila. police shoot armed suspect

A police officer shot and injured an armed man in West Philadelphia early Wednesday after he failed to comply with an order to drop his handgun, police said.

Police said two 18th District officers were surveying the area around 60th and Spruce Streets after a report of a gunpoint robbery there just before 6 a.m. Police radio reports had described the robber as a man wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, and soon, police said, the officers came upon a man fitting that description. After spotting the officers, the suspect ran north on Edgewood Street toward Walnut Street.

One of the officers got out of the car and chased the man, police said. The other officer followed him in the patrol car, pursuing him down Walnut and up 61st Street.

Both officers saw the man carrying a pistol as he ran, police said.

When he reached 61st, police said, the man stopped and pointed the pistol toward the corner, "appearing to wait for the officer who was on foot to turn the corner," police said.

By then, however, the officer in the squad car had pulled up next to the man, police said. The officer drew his own handgun and ordered the suspect to drop his. The man did not comply, and the officer shot him in the stomach, police said.

Police took the man, whose name was not released, to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was taken into surgery.

The victim who had been robbed that morning identified the suspect as the man who robbed him.

No one else was injured in the incident.

The department's Internal Affairs Division, as per policy, will investigate the shooting, and both officers involved have been placed on administrative duty while the department looks into the shooting.