Officer shot in Kensington standoff, suspect shot and killed by police

A police officer was shot in the hand during a standoff in Kensington Wednesday evening, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said outside Temple University Hospital. The suspect was killed by police.

Officers were responding to gunshots at a property on the 2800 block of Ruth Street around 7:30 p.m. when they found a man with a gun hiding in a crawl space, Outlaw said. Officers struggled to get him to exit the crawl space and deployed a Taser while doing so, she said.

“The Taser, to our knowledge, was not effective for whatever reason,” Outlaw said.

The suspect attempted to take the Taser, she said.

While the order of events is unclear and pending an investigation, Outlaw said that at some point officers heard a shot and saw an officer fall to the ground. Three police officers fired at the suspect and at least one hit him.

SWAT subsequently entered the building, found the suspect in the crawl space, and he was pronounced dead, Outlaw said.

It’s not clear how many officers entered the home on Ruth Street.

The officer, 27, was in stable condition at Temple Hospital and was expected to be released Wednesday night. The officer, assigned to the 24th District, has been on the force for one year. Chief Inspector Scott Small said the officer was “in good spirits.”

The last time an officer was shot in Philadelphia was April 29, when two SWAT officers were shot in a standoff in Germantown with a 65-year-old man.