All she could do was lean into the passenger seat to try to avoid the fusillade of gunfire, Ross said. Police say 25-year-old Nicholas Glenn was responsible for the shootings.
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“He was hell-bent on hurting lot of people”, Ross told reporters. He said he appeared to have mental health issues and was clearly angry at his probation officer.
“Lieutenant John Stanford, a Philadelphia police spokesman, tweeted that the shooting was “#senseless” and “driven by hatred”. Media reports however said that the shooter left a note expressing hatred for police. Ross said there is no reason to believe the suspect was “radicalized” after searching multiple addresses linked to him. “He was well-known to the police”. Glenn also had at least three magazines, and a plastic bag with 13-15 live rounds, according to police.
Police said the man also fired into a bar, hitting a security guard, grabbed a woman and shot her, then fired into a vehicle, killing a woman and critically injuring a man before he was shot and killed by police in an alley. He was in critical condition at John Peter Smith Hospital, but came out of surgery late Friday night and is expected to recover.
The city’s police chief said he wasn’t sure whether Glenn was motivated by anti-police sentiment or whether he was mentally unbalanced. He wounded a security guard at a nearby bar before grabbing a woman and using her as a shield as police closed in.
Aside from the officers, the identities of the other people injured in the spree were not immediately released.
In this alley, the commissioner said, is where the suspect was then shot and killed by police.
During a press briefing Saturday afternoon, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr. said Glenn, who police believe was around 25 years old, had “a pretty significant past” and “was well known to the police department”. One of the people shot later died.
Early Saturday morning, Mayor Kenney said he visited the officers and said both were alert and talking. This is very common with stolen weapons, and they are commonly used and sold by street gangs.
Police respond after a shooting spree in West Philadelphia late September 16.
Then the suspect shot her in the leg and resumed running east on Sansom. Please see our terms of service for more information.
“The War on Police: How the Ferguson effect is making America Unsafe” is a cop’s-eye view of one of the most tumultuous times in recent history for law enforcement. “Our hearts and our prayers go out to her family in particular as well as all the other victims”, said Commissioner Ross.
Young, a 19-year police veteran, is the second Philadelphia officer to survive an ambush-style attack this year. In January, a suspect confessed to approaching an officer driving in a squad auto and firing 11 times, seriously wounding him.
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