By DAMON C. WILLIAMS- When Rathan Chan fled from murder charges in California, he figured Philly was the safest place to go.
Chan figured he could blend in with family and friends on a block on North Broad Street.
That miscalculation cost Chan some serious injury.
Chan, of Stockton, Calif., was shot and critically wounded yesterday by two detectives of the homicide division’s fugitive squad when he allegedly attacked them with a knife in an apartment on Broad Street near Louden.
The suspect wound up in intensive care in the Albert Einstein Medical Center.
According to the police, Detectives Eddie Rocks and Jim Burke attempted to serve Chan a warrant yesterday morning at his building, which is just to the side of a dollar store and in a busy area of take-out restaurants.
When the detectives reached Chan’s third-floor apartment overlooking the store, he lunged at the detectives with a knife and both fired at him, police said.
Bystanders say an ambulance took a bloodied Chan to the hospital and that at least one of the cops also suffered injuries.
But police say neither Rocks nor Burke was hurt in the altercation.
Chan was wanted on murder charges stemming from a 2003 killing in California, and police believe that the amount of force used to subdue him was neccessary.
Police Commissionor Sylvester Johnson said, “There is no doubt that it was a legitimate shooting,” and praised his detectives for being “two outstanding people in the department.”
Philadelphia Daily News (http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/)