Man shot by off-duty officer is in an induced coma

A 23-year-old man shot in the chest by an off-duty Philadelphia police officer was in a medically induced coma Tuesday after sustaining severe liver damage, his fiancée said.

The Monday afternoon shooting left the family and neighbors of Josh Taylor with many questions about the officer's actions, insisting that the officer was not provoked and shot Taylor in his own house in front of his children.

The department remained tight-lipped about the incident in the city's East Frankford section. A spokesman said only that the shooting is under investigation by the Internal Affairs bureau and that the department takes shootings by off-duty officers "very, very seriously."

Taylor was in critical condition when a neighbor drove him to the hospital. He has since undergone the first of several surgeries, and although some vital signs have stabilized, fiancée Brittnay Britton said that doctors have warned her that his condition is precarious.

"He's fighting for his life," Britton said.

The officer, who has not been identified, works in the 18th Police District and is a 17-year veteran. He has been moved to a desk job, which is standard protocol after any police shooting.

The officer told investigators he was helping a relative move into a house on Worth Street about 4 p.m. Monday when he saw Taylor, carrying a handgun, walk in and out of a house across the street.

The officer said he identified himself as a police officer and demanded that Taylor drop his weapon but said Taylor tried to escape by going into his home. In the process, police said, Taylor pointed the gun at the officer. At that point, the officer fired and hit Taylor in the chest.

But Britton said Taylor's gun was legal, registered, and unloaded when he took it next door to a friend's house. Taylor, a member of the roofers union, was planning a trip to the shooting range later in the day for his friend's birthday, she said.

After a few minutes, Taylor returned to his own house, which he shares with Britton and their two young children. It was during those moments that he and the officer apparently got into a confrontation.

Britton said she heard no voices coming from the street. All she knew was that Taylor burst back into their home, as if someone was chasing him, and shut the door. She said the officer followed close behind.

The officer opened the door, walked into the home, and shot Taylor there, in view of the couple's 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter, she said.

"He came in my own house, looked at me, and shot him," Britton said. "I don't understand why this happened. Even if he felt threatened by Josh for some reason, why couldn't he warn him that he was going to shoot?"

Mary Thompson, who lives next door to the couple, was home when Taylor dropped by to show her boyfriend his gun. When Taylor left, she never heard any words exchanged between Taylor and the officer on the street outside.

"Then I heard a boom, and I saw [the officer] just run across the street to his house," she said.

After the shooting, when the officer ran back across the street to his relative's home, Britton ran after him.

"I chased him out the door because I didn't want him to get away with it," she said. "I ran in front of his house and shouted, 'You're not coming out. I'm calling the police.' "

Britton did not learn that the officer was a police officer until uniformed officers arrived.

"I didn't know he was a cop, and now that I know, I really don't care," she said. "What he did was wrong."