Philly police officer wounded, man killed during gun battle

A man was fatally wounded and a Philadelphia police officer was shot in the left foot during a traffic stop that escalated into a gun battle Wednesday evening in the city’s Logan section, police said.

About 6:45 p.m., police on patrol initiated a traffic stop on a blue Kia Optima on the 1500 block of West Somerville Avenue, said Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw.

The officers ran a check on the four occupants — three men and a woman — and found that two had warrants, Outlaw said. The officers then asked for backup and two other police vehicles arrived.

Four officers approached the Kia and asked a 24-year-old man in the back seat to exit the vehicle, Outlaw said. Then one of the officers allegedly saw that he had a firearm and declared, “He’s got a gun.”

At that point, there was an exchange of gunfire between the man and the officers, said Outlaw, who was joined at a news conference in front of the 35th Police District headquarters by her command staff and by John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5.

Earlier Wednesday night, department spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp said the man had fired a shot at the officers from inside the Kia, then got out and fired another shot and that five officers returned fire. The man was struck multiple times in the torso, Gripp said.

Outlaw said later that it was very early in the investigation and police were still trying to determine what happened.

Police transported the man, who was not named, to nearby Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7 p.m.

During the gun battle, one of the officers was shot in the left foot. He was taken by his partner to Einstein and was reported in stable condition. It was unclear who fired the shot that hit the officer, said Gripp.

The other three occupants of the Kia were not injured. Police took them away for questioning, Gripp said.

“It just speaks to the level of gun violence in the city,” Gripp said about the incident, in which one man allegedly opened fire on the officers, apparently without provocation.

Gripp said the officers involved in the Kia traffic stop were wearing body cameras and it was believed they had been activated.

Within minutes of the shootout, two men from another shooting also arrived at Einstein hospital by private vehicle. A 21-year-old man who had been shot twice in the head was pronounced dead. A 22-year-old man was shot in the left leg, and was listed in critical condition.

Gripp said it did not appear that the other shooting, which happened on the 2100 block of Windrim Avenue, was connected to the incident with the Kia.

A live 6ABC helicopter video showed two 35th Police District vehicles parked behind the Kia. The rear window of the sedan appeared to have been partially shot out. Later, crime scene officers placed evidence markers in the street next to the driver’s side of the car to indicate where spent shell casings landed. There also were evidence markers on top of the car, possibly to indicate the positions of the passengers.

The traffic stop occurred between a residential block and the athletic field of Widener Memorial School.