A Philly police officer was shot Wednesday, the second in the last week
The officer was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for treatment and was listed in stable condition, police said.
A Philadelphia police officer was shot Wednesday morning while serving a warrant, the second officer to be shot on duty in the last week.
Officers were serving a narcotics warrant just after 6 a.m. on the 1300 block of Kings Place, near North 12th Street and Master Street, in the Yorktown section of North Philadelphia, when they were fired on, police said.
The officer, who has not been identified, was hit by a shot on his ballistic vest that police believe ricocheted and struck his hand, according to Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel. The officer was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and was listed in stable condition.
Bethel said the ballistic vest was an upgrade given to officers about seven months ago, and credited it with potentially saving the officer’s life.
“It could have been much worse,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker told reporters Wednesday morning. “This is another reminder of the senseless and all-too-present gun violence here in the city of Philadelphia.”
A SWAT team responded to a barricade situation, and the suspected shooter surrendered to police, Bethel said. Another person was detained. Their names were not released, and no charges had been announced. The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing.
“As someone who spent 15 years in narcotics, one of the most dangerous operations to execute is doing search warrants on a property,” Bethel said. “You’re always at a disadvantage when you go into those properties because you do not know what’s on the other side.”
This is the second time that a Philadelphia police officer has been shot within a week. On Friday, an officer was wounded by a shot fired in a Fairhill corner store while inspecting a group of men for weapons. During that case, another officer — Raheem Hall, 33, a six-year department veteran — shot and killed Alexander Spencer, a 28-year-old they were attempting to search.
“This is the second time since I put my hand on the Bible to be sworn in as mayor of the city that we have gathered at a hospital emergency room for [the] shooting of a Philadelphia police officer,” Parker said. “Our police officers are on the front lines of our city every day and every night, putting their lives on the line to protect and serve.”
Shootings that killed or injured Philadelphia police officers reached a four-year high last year, when eight officers were shot, according to data provided by the police department. In both 2022 and 2021, seven officers were shot, and four were shot in 2020.
Three of those officers died: Cpl. Jimmy O’Connor in 2020, and Sgt. Richard Mendez and Temple University Officer Chris Fitzgerald in 2023.