PHA cop fires more than 12 shots in Kingsessing
A man was critically injured in the shooting, but city and PHA police can't confirm if it the PHA officer shot the man.
A Philadelphia Housing Authority police officer fired more than 12 shots in Kingsessing on Sunday morning and an acquaintance of hers was hit by gunfire, but PHA and city police say it's unclear who shot the man and why.
According to PHA Police Chief Branville Bard, the officer is the most recent PHA resident hired as part of an innovative program under which residents are recruited to become housing authority cops. Bard said the officer has been on the force about a year. He declined to release her name, but said she was off-duty at the time and has been placed on desk duty pending an investigation by the Philadelphia Police Department's Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation Unit.
Bard declined to offer details about the incident and said it's not even clear if the officer was the one who shot the man. No other injuries were reported.
"A male was shot, but I don't know that she [the officer] shot anybody," he said. "The circumstances are unclear."
Philadelphia Police spokesman Capt. Sekou Kinebrew said Tuesday that the incident happened around 4:25 a.m. Sunday on the 5700 block of Kingsessing Avenue.
Kinebrew said that the injured man and the officer are acquaintances, but that the nature of their relationship was unclear. He said both the PHA officer and the man, who is 23, were outside when "there was some sort of incident" and the officer fired her gun more than 12 times.
The officer's acquaintance was shot in his right arm and right side, but it is not clear that he was injured by the officer's gunfire, Kinebrew said. Only one type of shell casing was found at the scene, and those casings matched the officer's gun, Kinebrew said.
"We're still very much trying to sort this thing out," he said.
Following the shooting, the officer drove her acquaintance to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and was with him at the hospital when Philadelphia police arrived, Kinebrew said.
The man was initially listed in critical condition. Kinebrew did not know Tuesday if his condition had been upgraded.