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Cop fatally shot in Logan

GUN VIOLENCE claimed the life of Officer John Pawlowski last night, the sixth Philadelphia police officer to be killed in the line of duty in the last 16 months.

NOTE:

THIS STORY HAS BEEN CORRECTED.

GUN VIOLENCE claimed the life of Officer John Pawlowski last night, the sixth Philadelphia police officer to be killed in the line of duty in the last 16 months.

Pawlowski, 25, was shot several times at 8:20 p.m. by a "thug" who had been harassing a "hack" cab driver in Logan, said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. The five-year veteran, stationed at the 35th District, headquartered at Broad Street and Champlost Avenue, died about 20 minutes later at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Ramsey, accompanied by Mayor Nutter, said outside the hospital that Pawlowski, whose father and brother are Philadelphia cops, was expecting his first child with his wife, Kim, who is five months pregnant.

Ramsey said the gunman had frightened the cabbie and asked how much money he was carrying. When the cabbie threatened to call police, the suspect said, "You call the police, and I'll shoot you and the police," Ramsey said.

When Pawlowski and his partner arrived at Broad and Olney, they repeatedly asked the suspect to remove his hands from his pockets, Ramsey said.

He said that the gunman fired one shot through a coat he was wearing and continued to fire. Pawlowski was struck several times.

Pawlowski's partner shot back, as did other officers who arrived at the scene, Ramsey said. The gunman was critically wounded, he said, but underwent surgery at Einstein and was expected to survive.

Ramsey said that a .357 Magnum and crack-cocaine found at the scene belonged to the gunman and that police were awaiting a fingerprint analysis to verify the man's identity.

The hack, an unlicensed cabbie, was taken in for questioning.

When asked if the suspect was also a hack, Ramsey replied: "No. The suspect is just a thug."

Chaos reigned at the hospital last night.

A frantic family member arrived and asked cops who were directing traffic: "Where do I go? Where do I go?" She then darted into the emergency room at the back of the hospital.

Sources said Pawlowski's wife, who was hysterical, underwent an ultrasound to monitor the safety of the child.

Pawlowski's father is a retired lieutenant with the Special Victims Unit. Sources said his brother, Robert, is a police corporal who was working in the radio room last night. A state police helicopter was sent to Wildwood to pick up Pawlowski's sister, sources said.

Last June, Pawlowski fought off an armed man on a SEPTA bus near Broad Street and 66th Avenue. Police said at the time that Sorrell Graves, a convicted drug dealer, had been carrying a gun. Pawlowski jumped on board after an exiting passenger tipped him off. Pawlowski pulled the gun out of Graves' waistband, and both men tumbled out of the bus during an ensuing struggle. Another cop helped Pawlowski arrest Graves.

Addressing reporters, Nutter lamented the loss of another Philadelphia cop.

"This is an incredible series of events that has occurred too many times in the city over the past couple years," he said. "We are very angry about this and we're very upset and we're in a lot of pain. I ask the citizens of Philadelphia to pray for this officer and his family, to pray for the entire Police Department.

"It is beyond words to try to explain what it is like when these incidents take place, to be in the room where a wife, siblings, parents, cry out in pain asking the question how many more times? How many more times will this happen."

At the crime scene, two blocks from the hospital, yellow evidence markers littered the ground and atop what appeared to be Pawlowski's cruiser.

In the shadow of the Broad and Olney bus and subway station and the Philadelphia High School for Girls, dozens of cops last night stood at the spot where they lost another one of their own.

Rhonda Hill, who was standing at 15th and Olney, watched the array of flashing police lights and grim-faced detectives.

"A lot of them seemed to be walking around dazed like they couldn't believe what happened," said Hill, who like many other residents, streamed out of the surrounding houses when they heard the commotion.

"This is a disgrace that police officers are out here every day risking their lives protecting us, and they have to deal with something like this," she said. "There's no respect in this city any more for human life."

Traffic was snarled for several blocks south and east of the scene last night.

A hearse with Givnish Funeral Home, which has handled the wakes for all five officers killed while on duty within the last 16 months, slowly rode by the scene, most likely on its way to the hospital. *

 CORRECTION:

Kim Pawlowski, the wife of slain Philadelphia police officer John Pawlowski, is five months pregnant, not two as reported in yesterday's Daily News.