Police officer shot; manhunt on for gunman

Police scoured the city Monday for a man who put a gun to the head of a city police officer, then shot him in the shoulder when the officer smacked the weapon away.

Sgt. Robert Ralston, 46, was grazed by the shot and released from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ralston fired back at the suspect immediately after he was shot, said Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross, and Ralston believes he may have hit the man in the torso.

"Obviously this is a tragedy that was averted," Ross said. "It just demonstrates how brazen some of these people are."

Police started searching for the possibly wounded gunman and his companion shortly after 4 a.m. Monday but have found no trace of him.

Ralston, a 21-year veteran who is assigned to the 19th District, was patrolling near 56th Street and Lancaster Avenue, in the city's Overbrook section, in the early morning hours. Police have been investigating a recent string of burglaries at a strip mall in the area, Ross said, and Ralston was on the lookout for anything suspicious.

He saw two men on the railroad tracks and tried to stop them, but one ran and the other drew a silver revolver and pointed it at Ralston's head, Ross said.

Ralston immediately knocked the gun out of the way, a reaction that Ross said may have saved the officer's life.

"It's quite conceivable that the shot could have been in his head or chest," Ross said. "It's remarkable that he did not sustain graver injuries."

The gunman ran east on the tracks, police said. Police described him as a black man whose hair was in corn rows. He has a mark or tattoo under his left eye and was wearing a white T-shirt.

Ralston, who is married with five children, was treated at the hospital but later returned to the scene to assist in the investigation after he left the hospital.

Police know of no witnesses to the shooting. There were no surveillance cameras close by, and Ross described the spot as a relatively desolate area, even in daylight hours.

Officers with dogs searched along the tracks and a woods at 52nd and Lancaster, and knocked on doors in the neighborhood looking for people who may have heard or seen something.

Anyone with information is asked to call police.