Chester officer shot, 2 men killed after burglary report

A police officer was shot and wounded in Chester during a violent encounter Tuesday afternoon that left two other men dead, police said.

Police announced that one man died Tuesday afternoon, and police sources said a second man died late Tuesday night.

The officer, identified as Luis Rodriguez, was shot in the arm, police said. The wound was not considered life-threatening.

Rodriguez works part time for the Chester Housing Authority, for the city police, and for the Trainer Borough Police Department.

Authorities said Rodriguez, who was working for the housing agency Tuesday, responded at 4:09 p.m. to a report of a burglary in progress in the 300 block of Rose Street. The burglars were said to be armed with shotguns.

District Attorney G. Michael Green, who did not use the officer's name, said the officer approached and heard gunfire inside a building, a garage with an apartment on the second floor. He saw a man trying to flee from a second-floor window and when he confronted the man, he was shot.

Rodriguez was taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.

As more police arrived on Rose Street, two men ran out of the building armed with handguns, Green said. Police fired at them, killing one and injuring the other.

Another man was found shot, apparently wounded during the gunfire Rodriguez heard as he approached the building. Both wounded men were taken to Crozer-Chester.

Police did not say which wounded man later died at the hospital.

For several hours, at least one armed man was believed barricaded in a house in the area, and SWAT officers were called.

"Law enforcement assumes the building may contain additional armed actors," Green said during a news conference at the hospital.

At one point, police sent a robot-like machine to inspect the building. The situation was deemed serious enough that the city ordered off-duty officers back to work.

Dozens of police vehicles from Chester, Ridley Township, Glenolden, Trainer, county detectives, and state police descended on the shooting scene.

During the suspected barricade, David Nicholson, 28, said he was the nephew of the man who was fatally wounded and identified him as Charlie Chambers. Nicholson said a man named Rynell Whitehead was with Chambers and was hurt.

Nicholson said his uncle and Whitehead were playing cards inside the garage, which serves as an auto-repair shop, when some armed men came "and tried to rob them."

"I seen it, and I walked away," Nicholson said.

Shortly after 9 p.m., police gave an all-clear after searching the garage and second-floor residence and finding nobody.

A state of emergency had been declared June 19, setting a curfew of 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. for several high-crime areas of the city.

The neighborhood where the officer was shot is not in one of the designated zones.

"It's an area where we have a problem with the loitering and with drug sales and use," City Councilwoman Portia West said.

Speaking of the officer's shooting, West said: "It's scary, and we, all of us on City Council, are upset about what's going on in our city. As far as I'm concerned, we will have to do whatever it takes" to stop the violence.

There have not been any discussions yet about extending the curfew areas or further cracking down in the city, West said.

The City Council voted unanimously last week to extend the state of emergency an additional 30 days, until 6 a.m. on July 24.