2 police officers injured while responding to report of child shot in East Lansdowne; multiple people unaccounted for after fire engulfs home

Two police officers were shot Wednesday afternoon in East Lansdowne while responding to reports that an 11-year-old girl had been shot inside a home that later burst into flames.

And later Wednesday, as investigators struggled to piece together what led to the shooting, they said that as many as eight members of the family that lived inside the home — children and adults — were unaccounted for.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said the home was still smoldering Wednesday night, preventing investigators from sifting through the ruins. On Thursday, he said, fire officials and others would begin excavation work in search of evidence.

Multiple people — including children and adults — living in the East Lansdowne home ravaged by a fire Wednesday remain unaccounted for as the blaze continues to smolder, Delaware District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said.

“We are aware that there are at least six to eight people who are unaccounted for from that family,” he said. “It is our terrible fear that they may be inside that house when it was burned. We are hopeful that that is not true, but we will not know until tomorrow morning.”

Police responded to a report of an 11-year-old who had been shot at the home Wednesday afternoon, but were quickly met with gunfire coming from inside the house, officials said. Two police officers were shot, and have been listed in stable condition. A fire then engulfed the multiple-story house, but fire crews were delayed in combatting the growing inferno by tactical crews working to clear the scene.

The two Delaware County police officers shot near an East Lansdowne home before the house was set ablaze are expected to recover and are “going to be OK,” District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer told reporters outside Penn Presbyterian Hospital Wednesday evening.

The officers — one from East Lansdowne and one from Lansdowne — were shot while responding to a call that an 11-year-old girl had been shot at the home on Lewis Ave. But upon arriving at the scene, police were met with immediate gunfire, Stollsteimer said, and each officer was hit once.

Amid ongoing gunfire, police from Upper Darby ducked behind ballistic shields as they dragged the two wounded officers to emergency vehicles, said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt. Both wounded officers are 22-year veterans of their departments, officials said, declining to detail their injuries.

As evening commuters made it back to the neighborhood, many remained confused as to whether the gunman remained at large or when they could reach their homes that had been taped off.

At around 6 p.m., residents who lived further away from the fire were escorted home by police.

One woman, who only spoke Spanish, opted to take her three children to a relative's until the fire trucks and helicopters dispersed.

The East Lansdowne home where two officers were shot remains “an active crime scene” as fire crews continue to combat the blaze at the house, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer told 6abc.

As officers arrived on the scene Wednesday afternoon, responding to reports of a standoff, they “immediately were shot at by somebody from inside the house,” Stollsteimer said.

“The shots have now stopped, the fire has largely burned out the house, and we’re at the point now where officers are not only just taking control of the fire, but they’re going to go in and make entry and try to stabilize the situation,” Stollsteimer told 6abc.

Law enforcement sources said that the emergency call that brought two officers to an East Lansdowne home Wednesday afternoon also mentioned an 11-year-old girl who had been shot.

The call described a standoff with an armed suspect inside the home who had fired a gun out toward the street, the sources said. When the officers, one from East Lansdowne and another from Lansdowne, arrived, they dove for cover and were struck by gunfire.

Both were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in stable condition. It remained unclear if the suspect has been taken into custody, or what had happened to the child reported to have been injured.

Some neighborhood residents tried to get as close of a view of the home that continued to emit plumes of smoke around 5:15 p.m.

Police tape and fire trucks cut off several blocks surrounding the house, making it hard to get a view of the scene.

Nearby, on the 800 block of Pembroke Avenue, Mohammed Hossein, 57, looked on and tried to get more information regarding the shooting. He described East Lansdowne as a “quiet neighborhood,” a place where he and his wife routinely feel comfortable going for late night walks.

More than an hour after police responded to reports of a standoff at a home in East Lansdowne, video from Lewis Avenue shows the multi-story home engulfed in flames and thick, light-colored smoke.

Two officers were injured at the home while responding to reports of a standoff, law enforcement sources said, and they have been hospitalized in stable condition.

The fire is believed to have started on the third floor of the home, sources said. Some close neighbors were evacuated from their homes, and firefighters and other first-responders were stationed near the blaze, video showed.

Two officers were injured Wednesday afternoon at a home in East Lansdowne while responding to reports of a standoff, according to law enforcement sources.

One officer was from East Lansdowne Police and the other was from Lansdowne Police, the sources said. They were at the home on Lewis Avenue in East Lansdowne for reports of a resident there firing a gun from a window out into the street.

The officers, who were not immediately identified, were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in stable condition. They were alert and speaking.