Witnesses testify about confrontation between police, security officers

On one side of the security desk at Mercy Philadelphia Hospital was William L. White Sr., 19 years on the job, there to monitor comings and goings at the main entrance on South 54th Street.

On the other, at 10:40 a.m. Oct. 14, 2009, was a tall man apparently in a hurry: John King, a 14-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, who seemed taken aback by White's question: "Could I help you?"

Moments later, after a dispute about whether King would sign a visitor logbook before seeing his sister, a hospital nurse, White said King brushed past, pushed him against a wall, and then drew a semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at the dogged guard's chest.

White recounted the experience Tuesday for a Philadelphia judge who ordered King to stand trial on assault and related charges.

King, 54, who was fired in March after the District Attorney's Office decided to file criminal charges, seemed unconcerned by Municipal Court Judge David C. Shuter's ruling after the preliminary hearing.

Shuter dismissed one count against King - terroristic threats - but ordered him tried on aggravated and simple assault, a weapons charge, recklessly endangering another person, trespass, and witness intimidation.

In questioning witnesses, defense attorney Gerald S. Stanshine tried to portray White as the aggressor, and at least one witness, Naisha Pumphrey, a hospital transportation worker who saw most of the confrontation, said she saw White push King as well as get pushed by him.

"They were up in each other's faces just woofing at each other," Pumphrey testified.

But Pumphrey also said that she did not know King, who was off-duty, was a police officer. She said she was frightened when he drew a gun on White.

"I'm screaming, 'Oh my God! He has a gun, he has a gun,' " added Pumphrey, who urged others in the hospital atrium to run for cover.

White, under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Erica Wilson, insisted that he did not push King. White said he verified with King's sister that King was there to pick up keys and was going to send King upstairs.

But King looked at him, White testified, and said: "I'll sign it. This one's on me. But the next one's going to be on you."

White said he told King he felt he was being threatened and he would have King's sister meet him in the atrium. At that, White said, King walked past and tried to walk ahead.

A final prosecution witness, Earl Sutton, security manager at the hospital, testified that King called him three times after the incident wanting to know whether the hospital would press charges.

When he told King the hospital intended to do so, Sutton testified, King said he would file his own charges against White: "This will cripple him from getting a job in this city as a security officer."