Former Philly cop who shot and killed 12-year-old T.J. Siderio pleads guilty to third-degree murder

Edsaul Mendoza, the former Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Thomas “T.J.” Siderio in South Philadelphia more than two years ago, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder on Friday — becoming the first city officer to be convicted of murder for an on-duty shooting.

Mendoza, 28, was charged with first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter after prosecutors said he chased T.J., then shot him in the back at near point-blank range after the boy tossed away a gun he had been carrying. The March 2022 shooting made T.J. the youngest person ever fatally shot by a city police officer.

Mendoza’s plea marked only the second time a Philadelphia police officer has been convicted of a fatal shooting, and the first time an officer was convicted of murder. Former police officer Eric Ruch was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for shooting Dennis Plowden Jr., who was unarmed, after a car chase in 2017 and was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in prison.

Inside the courtroom Friday, Mendoza showed little emotion, staring straight ahead as he admitted his guilt. He spoke only to answer questions from Common Pleas Court Judge Diana Anhalt, who asked whether he understood he was waiving his right to a trial.

“Yes,” he said calmly, as his mother, seated behind him in the courtroom, held back tears.

Mendoza, a five-year veteran of the force at the time of his arrest, could face up to 40 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

The landmark case brought little comfort to T.J.’s loved ones, who said they were hoping that the officer would be convicted of first-degree murder and spend the rest of his life behind bars.

“This is the best we could do, I guess,” said Mark Nasuti, a family friend who helped raise T.J. He was resigned to the outcome, he said, even as he had been praying for justice.

The fatal shooting of T.J. — who was to turn 13 just weeks after he was killed — gripped the city and the nation as news unfolded of how the boy’s life was violently cut short after a tumultuous childhood, during which his parents had been incarcerated at various points in his life.

Law enforcement and city officials called the shooting a tragedy all around.

“We as a society have failed him,” then-Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said of the boy at the time.

In a statement on Friday, the police department said Mendoza’s actions were his and his alone, and that the agency was committed to building community trust.

“As many have stated previously, this is a tragedy — and it is compounded by the fact that a life was taken by someone who swore an oath to uphold the law and protect the community,” said department spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp. “The Philadelphia Police Department’s duty is to serve this city with honor and integrity, and the actions of an individual officer don’t represent the professionalism and commitment of the thousands of dedicated Philadelphia Police officers who put on this uniform each and every day.”

District Attorney Larry Krasner charged Mendoza with murder two months after the shooting on March 1, 2022. Outlaw fired him a week after the shooting, saying his conduct violated department policy.

Prosecutors said Mendoza and three plainclothes officers — Kwaku Sarpong, Robert Cucinelli, and Alexander Camacho — with the department’s South Task Force attempted to stop T.J. and a 17-year-old as they were riding their bikes at 18th and Barbara Streets at about 7:30 p.m.

The four officers pulled up to the teens that night because they believed the 17-year-old with T.J. was “tangentially connected” to a stolen gun case, according to court records. The four officers were in an unmarked car staking out the area after seeing a social media post that showed a teen with a gun in his pants pocket and another at his feet, prosecutors said.

At a preliminary hearing in October 2022, Sarpong testified that the unit had not received any information that T.J. or the teen he was with had guns that night, and that the officers had been looking for the third teen who had posted photos of guns.

Just as the officers activated their emergency lights, prosecutors said, T.J. fired a shot at the car, shattering the rear passenger side window and piercing through a passenger’s headrest. Shards of glass injured Camacho, who screamed that he had been shot.

The boys then fled and ran in different directions, prosecutors said, and Mendoza chased after T.J. as the 12-year-old ran down Barbara Street toward Moyamensing Avenue.

T.J. dropped the gun as Mendoza chased and shot at him, yelling at him to get on the ground, prosecutors said. The boy then tripped or dropped to the ground, and Mendoza approached him and shot him in the back, prosecutors said.

Krasner said evidence showed that Mendoza knew that T.J., who was 5 feet tall and 111 pounds, was unarmed when he shot the boy, and that his conduct before and after the shooting made that clear. The gun, he said, was 40 feet away from T.J. when Mendoza shot him.

Prosecutors said Mendoza fired three shots: the first just after T.J. shot at the car, and again as Mendoza started to chase after him. The third and fatal shot, prosecutors said, was fired as T.J. was lying face down on the ground behind a pickup truck.

Outside the courtroom Friday, T.J.’s mother, Desirae Frame, was blunt in her reply when asked how she felt about Mendoza’s plea to a lesser charge.

“It’s not fair,” she said.

Mendoza’s attorney, Charles Gibbs, declined to comment after the hearing. Mendoza’s mother also declined to speak.

Assistant District Attorney Clarke Beljean said he understood the Siderio family’s upset, but said he hoped the guilty plea would offer them some measure of closure.

“They’ve lost their loved one,” the prosecutor said outside the courthouse. “T.J. was 12 and he died in a violent, violent fashion. That’s hard. But at the same time with a guilty plea, there’s finality.”

T.J.’s family sued Mendoza and the city in January, saying T.J’s death was the result of “an abysmal systemic policy failure” within the Philadelphia Police Department.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement that while she supports the thousands of officers who serve the city, she has “zero tolerance for abuse or criminal behavior by our police force.”

“The justice system has spoken,” she said. “We offer our prayers for the Siderio family for their loss.”

Beljean went a step further, saying that Friday’s conviction was proof that the law applied to everyone — including law enforcement — in the same way.

“It doesn’t matter what you do for a living or who you know or who you’re connected to. The law should be the law,” he said. “And if you commit a crime, you should be held accountable the same as everyone else is held accountable.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the death of T.J. Siderio. He was the youngest person ever fatally shot by a city police officer.