Philadelphia Police Shooting: Cop Shoots Man to Death During Traffic Stop, Partner Hospitalized for Stress
A Philadelphia police officer killed a man early Monday following a struggle during a traffic stop in the Mayfair area of the city. The lethal shooting took place at around 2:45 a.m. on Frankford Avenue.
According to NBC Philadelphia, initial investigations reported that two officers, both recent hires within the 15th District who had been working for the department for about 10 months, pulled over a white Dodge Charger with Florida license plates outside of a foot doctor's office.
"We had two officers in a marked vehicle in full uniform that did approach a car," Captain George Fuchs said.
The officers began talking with the man in the rented car, but at some point during the stop, a struggle ensued. One of the officers then opened fire on the 26-year-old suspect, striking the man once in the head.
The officers then called medics who arrived and took the unidentified man into an ambulance, but he died just a short time later at the scene. Other authorities remained on the scene for hours, closing a stretch of Frankford Avenue until almost 7 a.m. while they swept the scene for clues and evidence.
Police said the man lived nearby and had a criminal record.
Investigators found the butt of a gun sticking out of the console inside the rental car, Philadelphia Magazine reports.
The officer who fired his weapon at the man gave his statement to the Internal Affairs police, while his partner was reportedly hospitalized from the stress induced by the incident.
Very few other details were released about how the situation escalated to the police officers using lethal force against the man.
"Right now we are trying to piece together what exactly happened between the officers and the suspect," Fuchs told NBC.
This is reportedly the 26th officer-involved shooting this year in the city and the fourth police-involved shooting that resulted in a death.
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