“Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark said on Friday at a press conference, “[Archer] said he pledges his allegiance to Islamic State, he follows Allah and that was the reason he was called on to do this”. Hartnett got out of his auto, chased the man and returned fire, wounding him in the buttocks before he was captured by other officers about a block away.
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The suspect is being held without bail, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said on Saturday.
Video of the incident, released by the Philadelphia Police, can be seen here.
CBS News in Philadelphia reports Hartnett was sitting in his patrol auto at around 11:30 p.m. when the attacker fired 13 shots through the driver’s side window at point-blank range.
In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday, Archer’s mother said her son had suffered head injuries from playing football and from a moped accident several years ago.
“He was trying to assassinate this police officer”, Ross told reporters. And when you look at the Internet activity coming out of Raqqa, Syria, into the United States every day-200,000 tweets per day-the message is clear: Kill military, attack military installations, and kill police officers.
The officer exited his vehicle, despite being injured, and managed to return fire, hitting the suspect who was quickly arrested.
The gun used to shoot Mr Hartnett, which was recovered at the scene, was a 9mm semi-automatic pistol taken from an officer’s home in October 2013, said Mr Ross Jr.
It is also not known if Archer had any contact with radicals or terrorist groups, or if he had been influenced by such groups from afar and become “self-radicalised”. “According to him, he believed that the police defend laws that are contrary to the teachings of the Quran”.
Officer Hartnett, who is in a stable condition in hospital, will require multiple surgeries after being shot three times in the arm – but Philadelphia’s police commissioner, Richard Ross, has said it is “absolutely amazing” that the cop survived the incident.
Yesterday afternoon, police and agents with the FBI’s Terrorism Task Force searched her house in Yeadon and another location in West Philadelphia associated with Archer.
“Those who carry out attacks in the name of ISIS or any other terrorist organization must be fully prosecuted”, said U.S. Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, using a common acronym for Islamic State.
“He’s been getting worse”, she said, adding that he ignored requests by the family to get psychiatric help. He pleaded guilty past year to charges of simple assault and carrying a firearm without a license.
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Police have said it is unclear whether he was radicalized or had ties to militant groups.
