Man shot in arm by police in W. Philly early Saturday
Police are investigating an officer-involved shooting in West Philadelphia early Saturday in which a man was shot once in the left arm after he allegedly refused to raise his hands to an officer, who believed he had a gun, a police spokesman said.
Police are investigating an officer-involved shooting in West Philadelphia early Saturday in which a man was shot once in the left arm after he allegedly refused to raise his hands to an officer, who believed he had a gun, a police spokesman said.
The incident happened about 4:10 a.m. at 56th Street and Haverford Avenue.
This was the third police-involved shooting in the city this past week. On Wednesday, police shot a 55-year-old man in the arm after he allegedly threatened them with a rifle in the city's Mayfair section. On Tuesday, an armed man who refused to drop his gun, was fired at by police during a chase, but was not shot, police said.
In Saturday's incident, a police spokesman, Lt. John Stanford said 19th District officers who were on patrol and driving on Haverford Avenue, near 56th Street, saw muzzle flashes and heard gunshots coming from the direction of a parked car. The officers made a U-turn and got out of their patrol car.
They approached the other car - a 2016 black Toyota, parked on 56th Street - and saw a man standing outside and three others sitting inside, police said.
The man standing outside the Toyota then fled north on 56th, police said. One of the officers chased him on foot.
Meanwhile, the second officer ordered the other three men to get out of the car, Stanford said.
The driver, a 25-year-old man, refused to cooperate and had his hand in his waistband area as if he were concealing a weapon, police said. Despite police orders to remove his hands and after the man took a step toward the officer, "believing he had gun, the officer fires and struck him once" in his upper-left arm, Stanford said.
The man was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in stable condition, Stanford said.
Stanford said police did not find a gun at the scene.
Police found 14 fired cartridge casings by the Toyota, which police said were from shots fired by one of the men in the initial burst of gunfire first heard and seen by the officers.
The officer who was involved in the struggle suffered minor injuries and was treated and released from Penn Presbyterian, Stanford said.
As is standard procedure, the officer who fired his weapon will be placed on desk duty pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation, Stanford said.
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