Southwest Phila. man sentenced in cop struggle

A 21-year-old Southwest Philadelphia man who got into a struggle with police last year, then shot himself with a gun, was yesterday sentenced to eight years and seven months to 19 years in state prison.

Before imposing the sentence, Common Pleas Judge Denis P. Cohen admonished Donte Jones.

"What you did was commit a heinous, heinous offense against two officers," who were out serving the community, the judge said. Cohen also noted that Jones has not shown "any type of remorse."

The judge ordered Jones to receive mental-health and anger-management treatment while in custody. And he added a 20-year probation term to follow the prison sentence.

Jones was convicted by a jury in August of one count of aggravated assault against one officer, two counts of recklessly endangering another person and weapons offenses.

At 6:53 p.m. on June 28, 2007, Jones was standing outside a deli at 60th Street and Chester Avenue, Southwest Philadelphia, when Officers Mark Moore and Richard "Butch" Riddick pulled up in a marked police van.

Moore said after yesterday's hearing that he had gotten out of the van to approach Jones because he had information that Jones was present at a 2006 shooting scene on 60th Street near Kingsessing Avenue, where an innocent woman was killed. Police wanted to question Jones to determine if he was a possible intended target, a witness or a suspect in the crime.

During the trial, Moore testified that he put his right hand on Jones' left elbow and asked Jones to come to the police van to talk. Instead, Jones pulled away and reached for a gun on his right side.

Moore and Jones then struggled for control of the gun. Officer Riddick ran out of the van to help.

All of a sudden, the officers heard a "boom!" It turned out that Jones shot himself in the groin.

In court yesterday, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Jenemann asked the judge for a sentence of 16 to 39 years.

Public defender Alison Lipsky asked for a term of six to 12 years.

After the hearing, Moore and Riddick said they thought the judge's sentence was fair.

Moore added that he wants Jones "to recognize and realize what he did was wrong." But he said he also felt some "sorrow and empathy" for Jones. "Given his environment and circumstances, you can't help but feel empathy, too, for him, but there are choices we must make in our life. . . . Whatever he chose" resulted in yesterday's outcome, he said.

The defendant's mother, Dawn Jones, 39, said she doesn't believe her son had a gun on him that day. "I think they just tried to make an example of my son for a crime he didn't commit," she said.

Both officers, however, testified at the trial that they never pulled out their service weapons that day nor did they have their personal firearms on them. *