Police make arrest in fatal shooting of Officer Richard Mendez during airport garage car theft

An 18-year-old Camden man was arrested Monday in connection with the death of Philadelphia Police Officer Richard Mendez and the shooting of Officer Raul Ortiz, and police are searching for at least two other suspects in the car theft-turned-fatal shooting at a Philadelphia airport parking garage last week.

Yobranny Martinez Fernandez, 18, was taken into custody early Monday morning in Cherry Hill, where he is awaiting extradition to Philadelphia on murder and related charges, Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said. Fernandez was taken into custody in Mendez’s handcuffs — a police tradition for officers killed in the line of duty.

Vanore said police believe Fernandez was part of the group of men who were trying to boost a car in the Terminal D parking garage around 11 p.m. Thursday night, before opening fire on Mendez and Ortiz.

Police believe another 18-year-old — Jesus Herman Madera Duran — was also shot during the struggle and then driven by accomplices to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was pronounced dead.

The search for at least two other suspects continues, and the reward for information leading to an arrest is $237,400.

“We need more people to call,” Vanore said. “We still have at least two individuals and there could be more.”

Mendez and Ortiz were about to begin their shift at Philadelphia International Airport when they heard a glass window breaking and tried to intervene in an attempted car theft. A confrontation followed, and shots were fired.

Mendez, 50, was shot four times in the torso and pronounced dead shortly afterward. Ortiz, 60, was shot once in the arm, treated, and released from the hospital over the weekend.

Several key details — including how many people were present at the time of the confrontation and who fired the shots — remained unclear Monday, and Vanore declined to elaborate.

But he said police believe Mendez and Ortiz were attempting to apprehend one of the individuals when “somebody came [from] behind” them and fired a weapon.

Police found Mendez’s gun holster empty and the firearm remained missing, though Vanore said police did not believe the fallen officer’s service weapon was fired at the airport Thursday night.

Mendez is the 10th law enforcement officer to be shot in the city this year, and the second slain, following the fatal on-duty shooting of Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald in February.

Mendez, of Somerton, was just days shy of celebrating his 22nd anniversary on the police force. He was a well-known and popular beat cop in the 25th District, patrolling some of the city’s most violent neighborhoods in North Philadelphia.

City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, who considered Mendez a friend, read a statement from the officer’s family after the arrest was announced Monday at Police Headquarters. Lozada said the family was grateful for the outpouring of support but requested privacy as they grieve.

“Richie was a great man who was loved by many, and we will continue to love him in the memories we have of him,” Lozada said, reading from the statement.

Mendez’s daughter Mia and his wife, Alexandria, were his “pride and joy,” the statement said. He was his family’s go-to problem solver, and among colleagues in the department, he had a reputation as a team player who was eager to help and rarely complained.

“He was the person everyone went to when they didn’t know what to do,” Lozada said. “Richie’s response was always ‘We’ll figure it out together.’”

Mendez had earned his master’s degree and had plans to become a college professor after retiring from the force, according to the family statement. His last few years as a patrolman with the Airport Unit were meant to be a winding-down period after a long career in one of the city’s busiest districts, police union leader John McNesby said Friday.

Mendez’s death devastated a police force during what interim Commissioner John Stanford described as an already taxing and emotional month within the department.

In unrelated incidents in the last two weeks, three officers were injured in a shootout with a suspect in a domestic violence incident in Rhawnhurst, another officer died by suicide, and another died of a medical emergency, Stanford said Friday.

A viewing will be held for Mendez on Oct. 23, followed by a funeral service the next day.

“It’s going to be a pretty somber mood for the next few weeks,” Stanford said. “But I think our women and men are rallying around each other.”