Cops oblige man yelling 'Kill me!'
Victim allegedly had lunged with knife
A knife-wielding man who allegedly lunged at police early yesterday in Center City was killed after numerous officers shot at him, police said.
At one point before he was shot down, the unidentified man yelled at police, "Kill me! Kill me!" according to Capt. Benjamin Naish, head of public affairs.
The shooting was caught on surveillance cameras installed outside the Robert N.C. Nix Federal Building on Market Street near 9th, according to Internal Affairs Chief Inspector Bill Colarulo. It was the second fatal shooting by police in the new year. In 2006, there were 20 such shootings.
The dead man's identity was still unknown. He was an African-American in his early 30s, Colarulo said.
Officers from the 6th District responded to a call at 1:49 a.m. and went to the building, where a glass door had been broken, allegedly by the shooting victim , Naish said.
"He was ordered repeatedly to drop the weapon but refused," Naish said.
Police "attempted to disarm the man with a taser device, but multiple attempts were unsuccessful," said Naish.
The man then yelled, "Kill me!" and lunged at police with the knife, Naish said.
"Numerous police officers" fired their weapons and the man was struck several times, Naish said. The man was taken to nearby Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:09 a.m.
A male bystander, whose car was caught between two police vehicles, was grazed in the thigh but refused hospital treatment, police said.