Philly Police: Gunman who killed commander’s son in FDR Park had been called by woman

A gunman who fatally shot the 20-year-old son of a Philadelphia Police commander at a Phillies tailgate Saturday night in FDR Park had been called there by a woman involved in a group fight, police said Monday.

Homicide Capt. Jason Smith, speaking at a morning news conference at police headquarters, said initial witness interviews described a chaotic scene at the park before the 10 p.m. killing, with several melees and brawls — and an incident in which several men challenged the suspected gunman to shoot at them because they didn’t believe his gun was real.

The mayhem ended in tragedy when a still-unidentified suspect fatally shot Nicholas Flacco, the son of Chief Inspector Christopher Flacco and a Pennsylvania State University student back in the city to attend the Phillies-Braves game and to celebrate his birthday, which was Friday.

The killing, one of five over the weekend, was called “a tragedy that hits home” by Commissioner Richard Ross, and the city, police union, and firefighters union have pledged a $35,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.

Smith offered new details Monday about the slaying, but said investigators had not made an arrest and still were working to identify people at the scene — including the woman who allegedly escalated the episode by calling a man with a gun.

According to Smith, Flacco and his friends who attended the game had been tailgating in the Jetro parking lot near Citizens Bank Park. Eventually, Smith said, the group migrated to FDR Park and continued partying and hanging out.

At the park, Smith said, fights began to break out between various groups of people, including one melee that erupted among a group of women. Smith said that investigators believe Flacco may have tried to break up that dispute, but that investigators otherwise did not believe he was an active participant in much of the fighting.

After one of the fights, Smith said, a woman threatened to call “her man” and said that people should be scared. A short time later, Smith said, a gunman arrived and fired a shot into the air. Several of Flacco’s friends, apparently believing the weapon was fake, then “dared” the gunman to shoot again, Smith said. He fired another shot that did not hit anyone, then left, Smith said.

Smith did not know whether anyone called police after that encounter, but he said that soon — possibly 10 to 15 minutes later — the gunman returned. After saying something to the group, the gunman fired at Flacco, hitting him in the chest.

Flacco was taken by police to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:17 p.m., police said.

Smith said he did not think Flacco and the gunman knew each other. “It would appear to me that this was a random encounter,” he said.

Attempts to reach Flacco’s relatives Monday were unsuccessful.

Flacco, of Bustleton, was in his fourth semester at Penn State and was majoring in liberal arts, university spokesperson Lisa M. Powers said in an email. “Random acts of violence such as this are unfathomable and so very troubling,” she said. “This is tragic news and we offer our deepest condolences to Nicholas’ family and friends during this difficult time.”

A statement sent to the Holy Ghost Preparatory School community and retweeted by the school’s Twitter account Monday said that Flacco was a 2017 graduate of the Bensalem school who was enrolled in Penn State’s ROTC program, and that he “hoped to be a member of the Marine Corps, like his father and grandfather were before him.”