Man accused of killing Philadelphia police officer in 2020 now eligible for death penalty
Hassan Elliott, now 25, is accused of fatally shooting Sgt. James O’Connor IV, 46, who was posthumously promoted from corporal.
The alleged killer of Philadelphia Police Sgt. James O’Connor IV, who was fatally shot in 2020, is now eligible for the death penalty, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced Friday.
Hassan Elliott, 25, and three codefendants were charged in a 31-count superseding indictment unsealed Friday that accuses them of racketeering, three other murders, and nine nonfatal shootings that occurred while they operated a violent drug-trafficking operation in the city’s Frankford section.
The superseding indictment also includes “notices of special findings” that now make Elliott eligible to be sentenced to death if he is convicted. All four defendants have been in custody since 2020, when they were originally charged by federal prosecutors.
The other defendants are Khalif Sears, 21, and two previously unidentified people, Kelvin Jiminez, 32, and Dominique Parker, 31. The 2020 indictment had charged Elliott, Sears, Bilal Mitchell, and Sherman Easterling.
The four defendants are now charged in the superseding indictment with killing Kaseem Rogers on Dec. 3, 2018; Tyrone Tyree on March 1, 2019; and Dontae Walker on Aug. 22, 2019.
The “notices of special findings” for Elliott are related to all four homicides.
Elliott and others were long-standing members of a street gang known as “1700 Scattergood” that operated from a drug stash house on the 1600 block of Bridge Street.
On March 13, 2020, around 5:40 a.m., Elliott, Sears and others were in the stash house when O’Connor and other members of the Police Department’s SWAT team arrived with a homicide warrant for Elliott related to the 2019 murder of Tyree, prosecutors said.
As O’Connor and other SWAT members climbed stairs to the second floor of the residence and announced their presence multiple times, Elliott allegedly fired a semiautomatic rifle 16 times, striking and killing O’Connor, prosecutors said.
In 2020, city prosecutors said Elliott had bragged of the shooting in jail and scrawled O’Connor’s name on the wall of his cell.
O’Connor, the son of a city police officer, was posthumously promoted from corporal to sergeant.