A Southwest Philly man who shot at a cop outside the King of Prussia Mall was convicted of attempted murder
Andrew Wiley, 28, was trying to flee a hit-and-run crash he caused in one of the mall's parking lots last year when he fired an unregistered ghost gun at an Upper Merion Police officer.
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It took a Montgomery County jury a little over an hour Wednesday to convict a Southwest Philadelphia man of attempted murder for shooting at an Upper Merion police officer last year during an attempt to elude police at the King of Prussia Mall.
Andrew Wiley, 28, was also convicted of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, reckless endangerment, and gun offenses. The verdict came after a two-day trial before Montgomery County Court Judge William Carpenter.
Wiley’s attorney, Benjamin Cooper, said during the trial that his client had been suffering from mental health issues and shot at the officers in an apparent suicide attempt. He called Wiley a “pretty troubled young man” who he said did not intend to hurt anyone.
“It wasn’t any type of self-defense situation. It was a panic situation and a desire to get out of it,” Cooper told reporters after the verdict. “And the desire to get out of it was to either scare people or to get shot.”
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But Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Tanner Beck, said Wiley’s claims did not “comport with the evidence in the case.”
“This was an individual that came up here, who brought a gun. He tried to flee from police. He was not successful in fleeing,” Steele said Wednesday. “And he started shooting at police in an effort to get away, and he was caught.”
The incident began when Wiley tried to flee a hit-and-run crash he caused in one of the mall’s parking garages, prosecutors said. He was thwarted by bumper-to-bumper holiday shopping traffic, and an officer in a marked patrol car was able to catch up to him.
Wiley drove over an embankment in an attempt to escape, dropping four feet and totaling his car in the parking lot of a Seasons 52 steakhouse. There, Wiley got out of the car, holding an unregistered ghost gun he later said he bought on the streets of Philadelphia for $600.
He fired the gun at Upper Merion Cpl. Scott Samuels, who returned fire and struck Wiley in his right ankle and leg. Samuels was not injured, and the shooting was later ruled justified by Steele.
In an interview with police afterward, Wiley said he was depressed and fled the scene because he didn’t have car insurance. After the verdict was read Wednesday, Wiley told reporters he felt “deeply sorry for everyone that was involved in this.”
Wiley will be sentenced in the coming weeks. His conviction of aggravated assault on a police officer comes with a mandatory 20-year minimum sentence under state law.
“We owe a debt of gratitude to our police officers in Montgomery County,” Steele said. “And anybody that shoots at them should understand from this verdict that they are going to face decades in jail.”