Police fatally shoot stabbing suspect who had attacked five people in West Philly

Philadelphia police fatally shot a man Wednesday night during a confrontation that came after two boys - one a son of his - were stabbed inside a West Philadelphia home.

The man, whose name was not released, was declared dead at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, to which he was rushed after the encounter near Webster Street and Cobbs Creek Parkway. The boys - the suspect's 8-year-old son and a 13-year-old - were in critical condition at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The initial call reporting screams and shots fired inside a home on the 6200 block of Hazel Avenue came in about 7 p.m., Police Commissioner Richard Ross said.

Inside, police found the younger boy with stab wounds to his throat and chest, and the 13-year-old with multiple wounds to his body. Also in the house was the suspect's 12-year-old daughter. She told officers that her father had choked her, Ross said.

"We don't know why. We only know from interviews that the daughter indicated she thought her father was high on drugs," Ross said.

"We know he assaulted all those people in a very violent rampage," Ross said.

Ross said that after the attack on the children, the man went into the house at Webster and Cobbs Creek, where two family friends, women ages 70 and 42, live. Ross said he told them that he was hungry, and they allowed him inside. He immediately attacked the two: He slashed the younger woman across the face and beat the other woman.

The fatal encounter with police came after that.

Ross said the man came out of the house with his hands in his pockets. When he abruptly took his hands out, six to eight officers fired.

Police were working under the assumption that the man had a gun - and "officers believed they saw a gun," Ross said.

No gun, however, was immediately found, but knives were recovered at both scenes.

farrs@phillynews.com

215-854-4225 @FarFarrAway