Video raises questions about police shooting of Alexander Spencer in Fairhill as police investigate chaotic struggle
Police have obtained an arrest warrant for a man they believe took Spencer’s gun from the scene.
A video posted on Instagram Saturday night that shows the fatal shooting by police inside a narrow neighborhood store in Fairhill raised questions about the circumstances that led to the death of Alexander Spencer, 28, and the wounding of a nine-year veteran of the police force.
Police have not said why two 24th District officers sought to stop Spencer around 8:45 p.m. Friday inside Jennifer Tavern, a deli-style “stop-and-go” establishment that sells beer and offers a few virtual gambling games for patrons.
In the video, the officers can be seen with their guns drawn, leaning over the man identified as Spencer on the floor near an overturned trash can. Two gunshots ring out, about five seconds apart. One police officer then gets up, limps slightly, and bounds to the entrance of the store at North Mascher and West Cambria Streets while radioing for assistance.
That officer then returns and puts his knee down on Spencer’s head, still talking on his radio. Spencer is still face down on the floor, hands behind his back, with the second officer on top of him with his gun drawn. The officer holsters his gun when the second officer returns.
Police maintained on Sunday that Spencer fired first and wounded the officer. Ballistics tests will reveal more about whose bullets struck both the officer and Spencer during the chaotic struggle.
Cpl. Jasmine Reilly said Sunday morning that police were aware of the video and it would be part of their investigation.
“We know for a fact that the bullet that wounded the officer came from the offender’s gun,” she said. “There were two shots fired, only one shot came from the officer’s gun.”
The injured officer remained at Temple University Hospital in stable condition, she said.
Sunday’s comments were a change from Friday night, when Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said definitively that Spencer had fired two shots that wounded the officer.
The officers had seen Spencer with a gun and got into “a scuffle,” with him, Bethel said on Friday, in a news conference outside Temple Hospital. “That male fires, at least two times, striking the officer once in the upper part of his thigh and his lower part of his thigh. His partner observing that fires and shoots the defendant.”
On the recording of the police calls, a distraught officer can be heard yelling for help. “Give me a f— assist! … There’s no f— cops out here. … My partner’s shot!”
Spencer was pronounced dead at Temple Hospital, Bethel said. The officer who shot him, a five-year veteran, has been placed on administrative duty, police said.
In the Instagram video, the person is filming from what looks like just outside the store and can be heard shouting, “Whatchall doing? Whatchall doing, bro?”
Spencer appears alive throughout the 30-second video clip, raising his head, as one officer leans on top of him from behind. Someone is yelling, “I’m shot.”
The man doing the filming then yells at the officer to “take the gat off,” using a slang term for gun, as he watched the police pinning the man to the ground following the shots.
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A man in a red sweatshirt is standing several feet away toward the front of the store and runs out at the sound of the first shot.
Police said Sunday they have obtained an arrest warrant for that man, identified as Jose Quiñones-Mendez, who they believe took Spencer’s gun from the scene. Quiñones-Mendez, 42, is wanted for theft, obstruction of justice, and tampering with evidence, police said.
“To the best of my knowledge, the decedent’s weapon somehow ended up on the floor,” Reilly said. “The person in the red jacket is believed to have picked up that gun. That’s why we’re looking at him.”
The man identified as Quiñones-Mendez returns into view at the end of the video. He is not seen near the officers and Spencer. (Another unidentified person can be seen standing behind the officers and Spencer.)
While details remain hazy, some critics were already questioning whether the officers were engaging in the controversial police practice known as stop-and-frisk that has been the source of constitutional legal trouble for more than a decade.
Newly inaugurated Mayor Cherelle L. Parker — who vowed to redeploy such stops as a crime-fighting tool — said Saturday that there would be a full investigation into the case, adding that she supported the police “1,001%.”
In posting his witness video, the unidentified person, whose Instagram account is called louumoneyy, wrote that he was buying something in the store when officers came in and “stopped & frisk me for no reason.” He said police then approached a group of men at the nearby gambling machines, asking them if they had guns. The men responded no and lifted their shirts to show their waistbands.
“That’s when I walked out somewhat but slightly turned around when they grabbed him by the jacket and started wrestling Spence towards floor and that’s when I started recording for his safety … had to shed light on the situation for his family and friends RIP Spence 🖤💪🏾 justice for all the young kings getting killed everyday,” he wrote.
The video had attracted about 25,000 views by Sunday morning, generating widespread scrutiny about the officers’ conduct and the events leading up to the fatal shots. Robert Saleem Holbrook, executive director of Abolitionist Law Center, said the video showed far more complexity to the situation than police initially described.
He expressed concern that police did not provide evidence of a 911 call about suspicious activity or any other evidence suggesting they had probable cause to stop Spencer in the deli.
“There are a lot of consequences of stop-and-frisk that people just don’t think about,” Holbrook said. “You can be in a papi store at 8:45 with a hoodie on with five other dudes, leaning up against a gambling machine. You may not like it — but it’s not illegal, especially if there’s no probable cause and no one was called.”
Though Jennifer Tavern was closed on Sunday morning, residents in the area said it was a popular hangout and meeting spot.
Across the street, rain pelted down on a vigil for Spencer where friends and acquaintances had left balloons, a few dozen candles, and little shots of what appeared to be liquor in plastic cups in his memory. Spencer was known in the area by his nickname “Dot,” which his loved ones had written in marker on the candles at the memorial for him on Saturday evening. ”I can’t spend my bday with you,” one person wrote. “Long live Dot,” wrote another. “U will be missed.”
Staff writer Anna Orso and video editor and producer Astrid Rodrigues contributed to this article.