Witness: Scrugs was threatening before he shot cop

An unlicensed cabdriver told a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury today that Rasheed Scrugs was agitated and threatening in the minutes before he shot and killed Officer John Pawlowski.

The jury is to determine whether Scrugs should be sentenced to death or life in prison for the murder of Pawlowski.

Emmanuel Cesar, 32, a Haitian immigrant who has been in the city six years, testified he knew Scrugs as a fellow "hack" - unlicensed cabbies who use their own cars and vie for fares near the SEPTA transit station at Broad Street and Olney Avenue.

But on the night of Feb. 13, 2009, Cesar testified, Scrugs was on foot and angry. He said Scrugs came up to him on the northeast corner of the intersection, grabbed his shirt by the neck and demanded to know how much money he had made that day.

"I said, 'I'm not telling you that,'" Scrugs testified, and said Scrugs responded by slamming him back against the security grate of a closed store several times.

Cesar said he got loose and began walking across Broad to get away and Scrugs followed, yelling, "You better not be calling the cops. If you call the cops I'll shoot you and the cops."

Cesar's testimony led the prosecution's witness list as Scrugs' death penalty hearing went into its second day at the Criminal Justice Center.

Scrugs, 35, a paroled robber from West Philadelphia, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder on what was to have been the first day of his trial in the shooting of Pawlowski, 25, a recently married expectant father on the police force just five years.

By pleading guilty, the proceeding is now focused on the jury's decision on a sentence: death by lethal injection or life in prison without chance of parole.

Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann, Cesar testified that Scrugs seemed to get more agitated by the minute and he made a second 911 call asking for police to help and this time making up a story that Scrugs had a knife.

Audio tapes of both 911 calls were played for the and in the second one Scrugs can be heard hollering at Cesar in the background. Scrugs' attorneys have said that Scrugs was high on the illegal stimulant P2P at the time of the shooting.

Cesar said Pawlowski and his partner, Officer Mark Klein, arrived shortly after the second call, got out of their squad car and told Scrugs to show his hands.

Instead, Cesar continued, Scrugs raised one hand while it was still in his coat pocket.

"I didn't realize what his left hand was doing and then I heard boom," Cesar testified. "Then I heard numerous shots and I ran north on Broad Street."

Scrugs had fired the gun through his coat pocket, he said.

When Cesar doubled back to the scene a few minutes later, he said he spotted police huddled around something and Scrugs lying on the medial island on Broad Street, blood pooling along his side.