Man sentenced to prison in shooting of Philadelphia Police Officer Giovanni Maysonet

A 46-year-old man who pleaded guilty to shooting Philadelphia Police Officer Giovanni Maysonet last year was sentenced to 22 to 44 years in prison Friday, prosecutors said.

Eric D. Haynes, of Darby, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and related offenses in December before Common Pleas Court Judge Diana L. Anhalt who sentenced him.

“This is just one more reminder of the danger that Philadelphia police officers suffer, the danger that they endure, the potential for harm that they can suffer at any time,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said at a news conference.

”If we are going to have evenhanded justice, then we are, in an evenhanded way, going to have to make sure that anyone who’s going to take a shot at a police officer is going to have the appropriate, just and very substantial consequence of the type that we are seeing right here,” Krasner said.

Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Hojnowski, assistant supervisor of the Homicide and Non-Fatal Shootings Unit in the District Attorney’s Office, said Maysonet appeared in court and gave a victim-impact statement.

Alison Neveil, the prosecutor in the case, was unavailable for the news briefing, but Hojnowski said it was his understanding that Maysonet “was okay with the sentence that was handed down.”

The Defenders Association of Philadelphia, which represented Haynes, could not be reached for comment.

Maysonet was shot Feb. 8, 2023, on the 200 block of North 60th Street in West Philadelphia after he and his partner, Officer Mychal Couch, pulled over a Lexus because of a suspected violation involving window tinting.

Maysonet walked up to the passenger-side door while Couch approached the driver’s side. Haynes, who reportedly was acting “very nervous and agitated,” was removed from the Lexus on the passenger side by Maysonet, Hojnowski said.

Haynes had a gun in his hoodie pocket and fired two times at Maysonet.

One bullet struck Maysonet’s bulletproof vest, but the other hit the officer in the abdomen just below his vest.

Couch returned fire and then rushed Maysonet to the hospital. Haynes, who was not shot, ran away but was arrested later that day.

Ernest Reid, who was driving the Lexus, took off in the car but also was arrested later that day and charged with obstruction and tampering with evidence.

Reid died in January after being hospitalized for a medical incident while he was incarcerated and awaiting trial, the Metro reported.

Maysonet, who was hospitalized for about a month and required several surgeries, is still recovering and has not returned to work, Hojnowski and Krasner said.

Roosevelt Poplar, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said in a statement Friday:

“We are thankful and humbled by officer Giovanni Maysonet’s bravery and courage. While on the job, Maysonet performed his duties with professionalism and integrity.”

Prayers by the FOP and the police department continue for his full recovery, Poplar said.