Man charged with murder of a bystander and shooting at cops, police say

A Philadelphia man who was shot by police after being on the run for allegedly killing a bystander in Kensington has been charged with murder, police said Thursday.

Spencer Majett, 29, was shot twice by Philadelphia police officers on Oct. 29 after they tried to arrest him and he ran, setting off a brief foot chase, police said. After the shooting, police said, Majett was in critical but stable condition, and authorities had been waiting for his condition to stabilize to charge him with murder and related crimes in the Oct. 8 slaying of 23-year-old Felicity Vanatta.

Majett also faces two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and related crimes for shooting at the two officers who chased after him, police said.

Officers were patrolling Kensington Avenue around 5:30 p.m. Oct. 29 when they spotted Majett. He was a suspect in the killing of Vanatta, who was shot outside the Steak N Beer deli on Kensington Avenue when an altercation erupted into gunfire, police said.

The officers confirmed the man was Majett by matching his description with alerts on their phone and called for backup, police said. Two other officers, identified by police as Officers Josue Reyes and Michael Trask, arrived and tried to stop Majett, who then took off on foot, according to police.

During the chase, one of the officers saw that Majett had a gun and shouted a warning, police said. Reyes then used a Taser on Majett, who police said fired a single shot at the officers from a .40-caliber gun. Reyes and Trask responded by firing their guns at Majett, striking him twice in the upper back, in an alleyway between the 3100 blocks of Custer and Reach Streets near Kensington Avenue, police said.

Majett was taken to Temple University Hospital for treatment. Neither officer was injured, police said.

Reyes and Trask, both assigned to the 25th Police District and with one year on the job, have been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation of the shooting.

Vanatta’s death marked the second shooting in a week on that block, where two people were struck by bullets earlier. And it was the second fatal shooting of a bystander in Kensington since August, when KellyAnne Kane, 41, was shot and killed after a fight broke out and led to gunfire on the 2500 block of Kensington Avenue, police said.