The gunman was killed in the shootout, though he managed to injure Officer Eddie Miller of the University of Pennsylvania Police, who is now also in the hospital in stable condition.
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Moments before police officers confronted the suspect in an alley, the shooter fired into a vehicle, critically injuring a man and killing a 25-year-old woman.
Miraculously the 19 year department survived on account of wearing a bulletproof vest and with most of the gunfire hitting her in the left arm.
He reportedly then used a woman from the bar as a shield before shooting her.
Commissioner Richard Ross said, “This is a completely weird situation”.
The note was addressed “Doomed People” and expressed hatred for law enforcement and a probation officer; it was found on the gunman, Ross said.
The AP identified that injured officer as Ed Miller, who formerly worked for the Philadelphia Police Department.
“Gun violence across this nation is absolutely out of control”, Ross said. The incident began about a dozen blocks west of the Penn campus, and Officer Miller was responding to a request for assistance when he was shot. “Our hearts and our prayers go out to her family in particular as well as all the other victims”, said Commissioner Ross.
“These last eight months of police deaths have just been horrifying, and there’s nothing that compares, and nobody should downplay the deaths of those officers”, Professor Harris, who studies police behavior, tells The Christian Science Monitor.
“We’ve got shots fired at us!” one officer can be heard yelling into his police radio during the chase. “This was a horrific night”, the commissioner said.
Mayor Jim Kenney praised officers and urged them to follow Young’s example and wear their protective vests. There was no immediate word on the officers’ conditions.
I’m sure they’ll cull through his computers and see if there’s anything on that, but there’s nothing right now to suggest his ties to anyone else or anything else at this point at time. She said she was “so relieved and pleased to report that he is getting excellent care and will fully recover from his wounds”.
“In these challenging and hard times for our country, there is no place that is immune to such senseless outbursts of violence”, she said.
A series of shootings that began with an apparently unprovoked attack on a Philadelphia policewoman left two people dead and five injured, police said Saturday.
After a late-night Friday shooting rampage in West Philadelphia, authorities located evidence that leads them to believe the gunman was motivated by a hatred of cops.
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The three wounded civilians and another wounded police officer were all in stable condition, police officials added. Archer, in custody, faces trial on attempted murder and related charges.
