By DAVID GAMBACORTA
A routine traffic stop in West Philadelphia yesterday turned into a cat-and-mouse foot chase that ended with a police officer fatally wounding a man who had aimed a semi-automatic gun at him, police said.
Capt. Benjamin Naish of the police Public Affairs Office said two police officers pulled over a midnight-green Chevrolet Monte Carlo after it sped through a stop sign on 50th Street near Hazel at about 11 a.m.
Three men jumped from the car, which also had illegally tinted windows, and ran down Cedar Avenue near 51st Street. Witnesses told police that one man brandished a pistol as an officer chased him into an alley on Cedar, Naish said.
The man stopped and pointed the weapon at the officer twice before the four-year-veteran shot him once in the chest, Naish said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. His weapon was recovered.
A second man, armed with a Tec-9 semi-automatic weapon, was arrested by Narcotics Strike Force officers, who responded to a call for officer assistance, Naish said. The officers discovered the man also was wanted on carjacking charges from last month.
Police would not identify either of the two.
The third man remains on the loose, though police were unable to provide a description of him last night.
Naish said the shooting was considered a “justifiable homicide” and doesn’t count towards the city’s homicide total, which stands at seven just five days into the new year.
“From all preliminary indications, this was clearly a justifiable homicide,” Naish said. “The officer fired fearing for his own safety.”
The incident underscores the fact “that there are just too many guns on the street,” he said.
Internal Affairs will investigate the shooting, as it does any time an officer fires his weapon, Naish said. The officer, whose name was withheld yesterday, will be assigned to desk duty during the investigation.
While investigators huddled over the crime scene, neighbors and curious on-lookers milled about outside a corner seafood shop on Cedar Avenue and expressed concern over the city’s recent spike in murders.
“Someone gets killed out here every day,” said resident Tony Brown, 38. “Everywhere you go, it’s crazy.”
Philadelphia Daily News (http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/)