Police shoot knife-wielding man in N. Philly

A 49-year-old man is spending the day after his birthday in the hospital, police said, after it took two blasts from a Taser and two gunshot wounds to end his violent rampage.

The incident began about 5:30 p.m., when officers arrived at the Tek Good Luck variety store on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 23rd Street in North Philadelphia, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

Customers at the store told police the man was wielding a knife, chasing them in and out of the store while visibly intoxicated. When the officers told the man, whom police said appeared to be high on PCP, to drop his weapon, he refused and instead lunged at them with the knife.

"These were uniformed police officers," Small said. "There was no question that he was threatening authority figures."

That's when the officers shot him with a Taser. He got knocked down, but he got up again.

A second blast from the Taser didn't do the trick either, so one of the officers fired his sidearm twice, hitting the man in the upper torso with both shots.

That still wasn't enough, however, and the officers had to physically wrestle the knife away from him. He was later taken to Hahnemann University Hospital, where he remains in stable condition, Small said.

Police are investigating the incident, the entirety of which was caught on the store's surveillance camera. The officers involved in the shooting are being interviewed by Internal Affairs, per police protocol.